title: Improved recovery and stability of ethanol in automated headspace analysis.
abstract: Solutions are reported here for two problems in automated headspace gas chromatographic analysis for ethanol. The first is the catalytic oxidation of ethanol by oxyhemoglobin, a process that is limited only by the amount of oxygen in the sealed vessel. This reaction is prevented by the addition of sodium dithionite. The other problem, the lack of a suitable salting-out agent, led to the selection of ammonium sulfate, which improved recovery of ethanol as well as enhancing method precision. A procedure incorporating these improvements is described.
mesh_terms: D002849:Chromatography, Gas / Q000379:methods*; D000431:Ethanol / Q000097:blood* / Q000652:urine; D005554:Forensic Medicine; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D000431:Ethanol