Separation and quantification of dialkyl ketones

Abstract

As an unsaponifiable matter in vegetable oil, dialkyl ketones (DAKs) are known and consisted of saturated and unsaturated ones. Due to the many species of DAKs, methods for the separation and quantification of DAKs are still under development. We found that saturated and unsaturated DAKs could not be completely separated using the gas chromatography analysis method equipped with common low polar column for DAKs analysis. Among the available gas chromatography columns, the ionic liquid column showed excellent separation and quantification of DAKs. Accurate estimations (approximately 102%) were also obtained in the recovery test of refined palm oil spiked with DAKs, indicating that the novel method developed in this study can be applied to analyze DAKs.

Keywords

• Dialkyl ketones
• Unsaponifiable matter
• Ionic liquid column