Identification of the individual polychlorinated biphenyls in a mixture by gas-liquid chromatography

Retention indices were computed for all of the 210 possible chlorinated biphenyls on 13 gas chromatographic liquid phases. All possible pairwise comparisons of retention indices were made for each liquid phase, each pair of liquid phases and each set of three liquid phases. On the basis of a closeness criterion of 10 (deltaRI = RIa - RIb = 10), those combinations of three or fewer liquid phases which could distinguish between nearly all possible pairs of chlorinated biphenyls were selected. Further considerations such as column efficiencies, analysis time required, resolution achievable and availability led to the selection of several common liquid phases for the qualitative and, in some cases, quantitative analysis of the individual components of mixtures of polychlorinated biphenyls. A few specific applications are discussed.