The determination of steroids with and without natural electrophores by gas chromatography and electron‐capture detection

The response of the electron‐capture detector to organic compounds is poorly defined, and the steroids are no exception to this observation. For those steroids which are naturally electron‐capturing, the structures of the electrophores will be defined. Other steroids can be made electron‐capturing by the formation of appropriate derivatives. Some new or infrequently used reagents for this purpose (flophemesyl ethers,t‐buflophemesyl ethers, pentafluorophenylhydrazone derivatives and halogensubstituted aromatic boronic acids) are described.