A study is made of three methods for obtaining bulk liquid-gas partition coefficients ( K L ) from GLC retention measurements on solute-liquid phase systems where a multiple sorption mechanism leads to sample size-dependent peak maximum retention times and asymmetric peak shapes. The methods compared all involve retention measurements on several columns differing only in liquid phase weight per cent, followed by extrapolations to give infinite dilution bulk retention volumes. The test solutes studied on four n-octadecane columns at 40.0 O C gave the following average K Z values: n-propanol, 110.3; see-butanol, 55.8; and methylisopropylamine, 106.8. Evidence is found for adsorption of the alcohols on the solid support and at the gas-liquid interface. The relative merits of the three approaches, which yield K L values in excellent agreement with each other, are compared. The implications of this study are discussed. SOLUTE ADSORPTION at the carrier gas-liquid phase interface and/or on the solid support in gas-liquid chromatography (GLC) usually leads to peak asymmetry, to sample size dependent peak maximum retention times, and to retention parameters which depend on the weight per cent of liquid phase in the column packing. This hinders separations, the assignment of meaningful retention parameters, and the determination of bulk solution thermodynamic quantities (1-5).Recently, two methods have been proposed for dealing with chromatographic peaks which are the result of concurrent solution and adsorption partitioning mechanisms (2-6). In these studies the problem of extracting meaningful bulk solution partition coefficients (or retention volumes) was treated. The approaches will be briefly described in the next section. The purpose of the present study is to compare the two methods, and to suggest an alternative approach which involves the production and analysis of solution dominated elution peaks.