IMPROVED CHROMATOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF VOLATILE SULFUR-COMPOUNDS BY THESTATIC HEADSPACE TECHNIQUE ON WATER-ALCOHOL SOLUTIONS AND BRANDIES WITH CHEMILUMINESCENCE DETECTION

Volatile sulfur compounds are renowned for their nauseous character in alcoholic beverages at an extremely low concentration. In this work, a quantitative analytical method was developed for their detection wit h the static headspace technique using a Sievers chemiluminescence det ector (SCD 355). It gives a linear response over the concentration ran ge 10-100 mu g/l with a repeatability or reproducibility error of less than 5%. It was found that the headspace concentration of sulfur comp ounds in water-alcohol solutions or brandies rises with increasing rat io between the gas and liquid phase volumes and is proportional to the temperature. However, it diminishes with increasing ethanol content a nd is barely sensitive to the liquid-phase salt concentration.