Reliable
methods for determining the vapor pressures of organic
materials are of increasing importance as a tool for predicting the
behavior and fate of chemicals that are introduced into the environment.
In the present work, we analyze the method that relates the gas–liquid
chromatography (GLC) retention data, namely, the retention factors
(k) of selected organic compounds with their vapor
pressures (p
0) using multiple reference
standards. Temperature-dependent k values of test
chemicals and an adequate number y of reference standard
chemicals having directly measured vapor pressure values at temperatures
corresponding to GLC measurements are required to apply this method
(GLC-RTyS). Retention data of 49 test compounds including
a series of alkanes, alkanols, alkyl benzenes, phenols, some (hydro)naphthalene
derivatives, and menthol determined on a low-polar dimethylpolysiloxane
(HP-1) column at a temperature range from 353 K to (403 or 423) K
were used for method validation. We present a first systematic analysis
aimed at examining whether and to what extent the selection of experimental
conditions might influence/improve the results. Furthermore, we present
a review of an alternative multireference correlation gas chromatographic
(CGC) method that employs significant extrapolations and is based
on the use of adjusted retention time t′ instead
of k in order to reveal uncertainties inherent in
routine application of this method.