Acidic organophosphorus compounds may be identified by GLC via their methyl esters, usually prepared from diazomethane. The wide applications of this mthod are, however, limited by the toxicity of diazomethane. Tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide in methanol solution reacted rapidly with acidic organophosphorus compounds at room temperature to form tetramethyl ammonium salts, which were then converted to the corresponding methyl esters by pyrolysis at 300-350 deg.C. A simple and convenient method for separation and identification of various types of acidic phosphates, phosphonates and phosphinates by GLC has been developed. The GLC behaviours of phosphoric acid dialkyl esters, mono-esters of phenyl-and cyclohexyl-phosphonic acids as well as dialkylphosphinic acids can be represented by corrected retention time (t'R) which correlates linearly with the number of carbon atoms of the alkyl groups in these organophosphorus compounds. The influence of number of carbon atoms and isomerization of alkyl group on t'R values and retention index (I) calculated by Kovats equation was discussed. As shown by our experiments the change in retention index (ΔI) in the homologous series of phosphoric acid dialkyl esters is nearly a constant on lengthening the alkyl group of the esters with methylene linkages.

Key words: GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY, ORGANO PHOSPHORUS COMPOUNDS, PHOSPHORIC ACID ESTER, PHOSPHINIC ACID, PHOSPHONIC ACID