Gas Chromatographic Analysis of Toluene Oxidation Products

An automatic method of analyzing the products of the catalytic vapor-phase oxidation of toluene is described. In this system the partial oxidation products and carbon oxides are analyzed on two different gas chromatographs. This assures flexibility and a minimum of analysis time. The partial oxidation products are separated in a column of 5% OV-101 on Chromosorb G with temperature programming. The carbon oxides are separated—after trapping the partial oxidation products and water—on a Chromosorb 102 column and detected with an FID after passing through a methanizer. The cycle time for carbon oxide analysis may be as low as 1 min and for partial oxidation products, 10 min.