Separation and determination of non-volatile organic cpds. - by column chromatography on silica gel

Non-volatile aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbons are separated from mixts. with other hydrocarbons and organic cpd. by (A) shaking or extracting with n-hexane or n-heptane, (B) adding the soln. to a column filled with silica gel, (C) eluting the aliphatics with an 1:9 by vol. mixt. of n-hexane/n-heptane until completely removed from the column while the aromatics, as visible in long-wave U.V. light are still in the middle of the column, and (D) eluting of the aromatics. The process is useful in the extraction of non-volatile aromatics and aliphatics and determination of their content in mixtures e.g. atmospheric dust, paraffins for medicinal and cosmetic purposes, etc.