The technique of on-line coupled high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)/capillary gas chromatography (GC) is applied to the qualitative two-dimensional analysis of kerosene and diesel fuels. Normal-phase microbore HPLC is used to obtain a group-type separation by back-flushing the whole aromatic fraction as a single peak after elution of the aliphatics. Either fraction can be switched into the GC for analysis of its individual components through a 10-port switching valve interface and a 25-m retention gap. The aromatic fractions of kerosene and diesel fuels contain 1- to 2-ring and 1- to 3-ring compounds, and the aliphatic fractions contain alkanes ranging from C8 to C18 and C9 to C26, respectively. Coupling HPLC to GC minimizes sample handling and improves sensitivity as the whole HPLC fraction is transferred on-line into the GC column. The system described is totally automated by pneumatically actuated valves, thereby providing a simple and reproducible technique for the analysis of petroleum fuels.
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Davies et al. (1988) studied this question.