Chemical Degradation of Single, Gas Chromatographic Peaks for Confirmation of Pesticide Residue Identity

Gas chromatographic peaks of chlorinated hydrocarbons are routed to a built-in, flow-through reactor. There they are partially dechlorinated in carrier gas doped with hydrogen,over a nickel catalyst. The reaction products flow on to a second column for separation. The potential of this approach as a confirmation technique for pesticide residue analysis is demonstrated by electron capture gas chromatography of hexachlorobenzene as the analyte and polychlorinated biphenyls and naphthalenes as interferents.