A pressure-affected headspace-gas chromatography method for determining calcium carbonate content in paper sample

The present work reports on the development of a pressure-affected based headspace (HS) analytical technique for the determination of calcium carbonate content in paper samples. By the acidification, the carbonate in the sample was converted to CO₂ and released into the headspace of a closed vial and then measured by gas chromatography (GC). When the amount of carbonate in the sample is significant, the pressure created by the CO₂ affects the accuracy of the method. However, the pressure also causes a change in the O₂ signal in the HS-GC measurement, which is a change that can be used as an indirect measure of the carbonate in the sample. The results show that the present method has a good precision (the relative standard deviation<2.32%), and good accuracy (the relative differences compared to a reference method was<5.76%). Coupled with the fact that the method is simple, rapid, and accurate, it is suitable for a variety of applications that call for the analysis of high carbonate content in paper samples.