Gas chromatography-flame ionisation detector method for determination of carbon chain length distribution of palm-based fatty alcohol

A simple and rapid gas chromatography (gc) method using a flame ionisation detector (fid) was developed for the determination of the carbon chain length (ccl) distribution of palm-based fatty alcohols (fal). the method involved a single-step sample preparation,where the fal was silylated with n,o,-bis(trimethylsilyl)trifluoroacetamide with 1% trimethylsilyl chloride in n,n- dimethylformamide into trimethylsilyl ethers,followed by its direct injection into the gc-fid system. the precision and long-term precision of the gc-fid instrument performance was high as shown by coefficient of variation (cv) of lower than 1.00% (retention time) and 1.80% (peak areas) from multiple injections of three sets of fal standards mixture (ccl ranging from c8 to c20) for three consecutive days. the results obtained for the ccl distribution (as relative percentage of peak area) for commercial fal were close to the known values provided by the manufacturer,showing good accuracy of the method. the cv obtained from analyses of four replicates commercial fal and its blends was lower than 1.5% indicating that the method has good repeatability.