EVALUATION OF CAPILLARY GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHY FOR THE MEASUREMENT OF HYDROCARBONS BY PARTICIPATING IN AN INTERCOMPARISON EXPERIMENT

By participating in an International Hydrocarbons Intercomparison Expe riment, a method for the determination of nonmethane hydrocarbons was evaluated. The method involves Tenax-TA sampling, thermal desorption a nd preconcentration combined with capillary gas chromatography with fl ame ionization detection. Sixty target compounds from C-2 to C-11 were separated by using a megabore capillary column with a thick film of b onded nonpolar siloxane stationary phase (5 mu m, Rtx-1). The unusuall y thick film in the column was an advantage for resolving light hydroc arbons (C-2-C-3) at room temperature. The percent difference between t he National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and our labor atory in the intercomparison experiment is in the range of 0.99 %-19.7 0 %.