Of the intermediate mixtures obtained during the production of acetone-derived products such as diacetone alcohol, mesityloxide, methyl isobutyl ketone and isophorone, those in isophorone production, are the most complex. A gas-liquid chromatographic method for analysis and control during different stages of isophorone production is proposed.
For the separation of multi-component mixtures of polar isophorone byproducts and also the main product, a stationary phase of the polyglycol type (PEG 20M) and a deep acid-washed support (Chromosorb P) are used.
A transmission electron microscopic investigation of the diatomite surface before and after deep acid washing was carried out. The electron micrographs showed the important effect of the removal of iron impurities on the surface homogeneity. For peak identification linear temperature programming was applied and retention indices were calculated from Van den Do01 and Kratz's equation. n-Alkanols were selected instead of n-alkanes as fixed points on the retention index scale of isophorone byproducts. Experimental data on retention parameters and quantitation were evaluated for their reproducibility.