Comparison of methods employing gas chromatography retention data to determine vapour pressures at 298 K

Gas-liquid chromatography as a tool to determine vapor pressure of low-volatility pesticides: A critical study

BACKGROUND

The vapor pressure of pesticides at room temperature is one of the fundamental properties for predicting their volatilities and the likelihood of their movement into the environment. It is also highly valuable for decision making in agriculture and agro-industries. Direct methods applicable to low-volatile substances include gas saturation and molecular effusion techniques; however, they have several drawbacks. We propose an indirect method based on gas-liquid chromatography using short capillary columns coated with stationary phases with high phase ratio and operated at very high flow rates.

RESULTS

The method was applied to determine the vapor pressure of twenty pesticides, ranging from intermediate to very low volatilities (<0.133 mPa). Chromatographic assumptions were critically and comprehensively discussed, and the precision and accuracy of the method were evaluated using three fatty acid methyl esters (referred as validation solutes) with known and reliable vapor pressures available over a wide range of temperatures. The relative standard deviations of the primary data were below 4 % and increased to 18 % for extrapolated vapor pressures. The measurement conditions allowed for the extension of retention measurements to relatively lower temperatures while ensuring reasonable operational times, thereby, minimizing the extent of temperature extrapolation required. The target pesticides included widely used chemical compounds with multiple functional groups and molecules exhibiting configurational isomerism, whose individual vapor pressure could be distinguished provided that sufficient chromatographic selectivity was achieved.

SIGNIFICANCE

This work provides a readily useable technique which employs instruments commonly found in both academic and industrial laboratories. Furthermore, the method is simple, robust, and reliable, allowing to estimate the vapor pressures of low-volatile and semi-volatile pesticides within reasonable analysis time and overcoming the main limitations associated with traditional methods.

Supercooled liquid vapour pressures and related thermodynamic properties of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons determined by gas chromatography

A gas chromatographic method using Kováts retention indices has been applied to determine the liquid vapour pressure (P(i)), enthalpy of vaporization (DeltaH(i)) and difference in heat capacity between gas and liquid phase (DeltaC(i)) for a group of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). This group consists of 19 unsubstituted, methylated and sulphur containing PAHs. Differences in log P(i) of -0.04 to +0.99 log units at 298.15K were observed between experimental values and data from effusion and gas saturation studies. These differences in log P(i) have been fitted with multilinear regression resulting in a compound and temperature dependent correction. Over a temperature range from 273.15 to 423.15K, differences in corrected log P(i) of a training set (-0.07 to +0.03 log units) and a validation set (-0.17 to 0.19 log units) were within calculated error ranges. The corrected vapour pressures also showed a good agreement with other GC determined vapour pressures (average -0.09 log units).

Determining the vapour pressures of plant volatiles from gas chromatographic retention data

The frequently used vapour pressure versus Kováts retention index relationship has been evaluated in terms of its universal applicability, highlighting the problems associated with predicting the vapour pressures of structurally divergent organic compounds from experimentally measured isothermal Kováts retention indices. Two models differing in approximations adopted to express the activity coefficient ratio have been evaluated using 32 plant volatiles of different structural types as a test set. The validity of these models was established by checking their ability to reproduce 22 vapour pressures known from independent measurements. Results of the comparison demonstrated that (i) the original model, based on the assumption of equal activity coefficients for the test and reference substances, led, as expected, to a poor correlation (r2 = 89.1% only), with significantly deviating polar compounds and (ii) the model showed significant improvement after incorporating a new empirical term related to vaporization entropy and boiling point. The addition of this term allowed more than 99% of the vapour pressure variance to be accounted for. The proposed model compares favourably with existing correlations, while having an added advantage of providing a convenient tool for vapour pressure determination of chemically divergent chemicals.

Indirect determination of low vapour pressures using solid-phase microextraction—application to tetrachlorobenzenes and tetrachlorobenzyltoluenes

There is still a gap of reliable vapour pressure data at ambient temperature for low volatile organic substances due to the difficult and time-consuming determination using the classical methods. Static headspace extraction with a solid-phase microextraction (SPME) fibre in combination with gas chromatographic analysis provides an inexpensive tool for the indirect determination of low vapour pressures down to 10(-5) Pa. The procedure consists of two steps: (a) exposure of SPME fibre in the headspace above the test chemical over minutes to hours and (b) desorption and quantification of extracted amount. The calibration was performed using low volatile reference substances with well-known vapour pressures. A good correlation was found between substance uptakes of SPME fibre and vapour pressures. The method was applied, e.g. to tetrachlorobenzenes and to selected tetrachlorobenzyltoluenes with questionable vapour pressures. We obtained values between 0.98 and 13.5 Pa for the former and results between 0.13 and 0.68 mPa for the latter group of congeners. The scope of the method can be extended to substances with even lower vapour pressures, provided that reliable reference data are available.

Determination of vapor pressures using gas chromatography

The determination of vapor pressures, p0, of compounds with low vapor pressures (10(-8) Pa < p0 < 10(3) Pa) is becoming increasingly important as a result of the need to measure p0 for environmentally sensitive compounds such as organophosphorus pesticides, biphenyls, dioxins and alkylbenzenes. Under strict conditions, the components of gas-liquid chromatography (GLC) (a volatile solute, an involatile solvent and a mobile carrier gas) are in equilibrium and as a result it is possible to use the technique to measure equilibrium properties such as vapor pressure. The technique is rapid, reliable and reproducible. These advantages have tempted many workers to measure physiochemical properties, including vapor pressures, under conditions for which the basic theories do not hold. In this review, the GLC techniques used to measure vapor pressures from GLC data together with the basic theory, limitations of the techniques and some recent measurements are discussed.

Estimation of selected physicochemical properties for methylated naphthalene compounds

Liquid aqueous solubility (S(w,L)), octanol/water partition coefficients (K(ow)), liquid vapor pressure (P(v,L)), and Henry's law constants (H(c)) were estimated for 20 methylated naphthalenes ranging from monomethyl to tetramethylnaphthalenes. Chromatographic methods were used for the estimation. Chromatographic retention measurements were conducted for 11 reference compounds and regressions were fit between the retention indices and the physicochemical properties. HPLC octadecylsilyl column with acetonitrile/water eluent was used for the estimation of S(w,L) and K(ow). Two GC columns, HP5-MS and a more hydrophobic HP-1, were tested for the estimation of P(v,L). Measured retention indices for the methylated naphthalenes were entered to the regression equations to calculate the physicochemical properties for these compounds. Literature values, where available, were used to validate the calculated values. The method accurately estimated the physicochemical properties. Estimated S(w,L) and P(v,L) decreased with the number of methyl groups. K(ow) increased with the number of methyl groups. There was no obvious relation between H(c) and the number of methyl groups. Log S(w,L) ranged from 0.885 for 1,2,5,6-tetramethylnaphthalene to 2.269 for 1-methylnaphthalene (mmol/m(3)). Log K(ow) varied from 3.89 for 1-methylnaphthalene to 4.95 for 1,2,5,6-tetramethylnaphthalene. Log P(v,L) ranged from -0.983 for 1,2,5,6-tetramethylnaphthalene to 0.789 for 2-methylnaphthalene (Pa). Log H(c) varied from 1.03 for 1,4,5-trimethylnaphthalene to 1.73 for 2,6-dimethylnaphthalene (Pa m(3)/mol). There were no apparent effects of GC column hydrophobicity on the accuracy of the results. Estimation of S(w,L) and K(ow) based on GC retention indices was not as accurate as with HPLC. Comparison of the estimated values with values predicted by EPIWIN indicated that EPIWIN is useful in giving order-of-magnitude prediction of physicochemical properties.

Using temperature gradient gas chromatography to determine or predict vapor pressures and linear solvation energy relationship parameters of highly boiling organic compounds

An isothermal chromatographic method allowing determination of sigmabetaH2 and sigmaalphaH2 descriptors of the linear solvation energy relationship (LSER) was tested and results obtained are presented. This method is based on the use of four stationary phases of various polarity. On the other hand, it was demonstrated that the temperature gradient chromatography may be successfully used to determine LSER descriptors. Results of piH2, sigmabetaH2 and log L16 determination are reported. This approach opens new possibilities of precise and rapid determination of LSER descriptors of high boiling compounds using a small number of phases. It was demonstrated that the log L16 descriptor may be used to estimate vapor pressures of high boiling organic compounds with a better accuracy than those usually obtained with chromatographic methods.

Estimating octanol-air partition coefficients of nonpolar semivolatile organic compounds from gas chromatographic retention times

Relative gas chromatographic retention times on a non-polar stationary phase can be used to determine the octanol-air partition coefficient (K(OA)) and the energy of phase transfer between octanol and the gas phase (delta(OA)U) for semivolatile, nonpolar organic compounds. The only prerequisites are knowledge of the temperature-dependent K(OA) of a standard reference compound and directly measured K(OA) values at one temperature for a sufficient number of calibration compounds. It is shown that the technique is capable of predicting the K(OA) of polychlorinated benzenes, biphenyls and naphthalenes as well as polybrominated diphenyl ethers within the environmentally relevant temperature range with an average deviation from directly measured values of <0.2 log units.

Gas chromatographic determination of vapour pressure and related thermodynamic properties of monoterpenes and biogenically related compounds

The (subcooled) liquid vapour pressure, heat of vapourization and gas-liquid heat capacity difference of monoterpenes and biogenically related compounds were determined by a gas-liquid chromatographic method based on Kovats retention indices. Compared to those used in previous studies using the same method, these compounds are structurally diverse and have relatively low boiling points. Despite of this and even though the difference in activity coefficients in the chromatographic column stationary phase between the test and reference compounds were ignored, results for vapour pressure compare favorably with experimental literature data. The results indicate that the method can be improved by introducing temperature dependent activity coefficients, preferably based on a physicochemical model for gas-liquid partitioning.