Reductive ozonolysis for monoenoic fatty acid structure determination in the microreactor apparatus

An improved method of double bond location in unsaturated monoenoic fatty acids has been developed for the “integrated microreactor apparatus” (MRA) system. Solid triphenylphosphine (TPP), as contrasted with previously employed TPP solutions, effectively reduces ozonides to aldehydes and eliminates interferences of solvents with desired aldehyde peaks and the selective loss of volatile aldehydes. The need for separating homologous series of volatile aldehydes at subambient temperatures (beginning at −40 C) and of long chain aldehyde esters (up to 270 C) places stringent requirements upon column stability, polarity and resolution. An effective substrate system for gas liquid chromatography (GLC) has been developed that gives results amenable to digital computer analysis; also developed are techniques of utilizing temperature measurements from temperature programming and for eliminating detector poisoning by TPP. This improved MRA system has been applied to the analysis of isomeric fatty acids formed in hydrogenation of fats.