Methyl-8 Derivatization reagent - experiences

[Arne]

Hi All

we are looking for a mild derivatization reagent for carboxylic acids for GC analysis.

Sylylation has failed for unknown reasons and we are not really set-up for doing extractive procedures (BF3/MeOH,...).

Has anyone tried the Methyl-8 reagent (N,N-Dimethylformamid-dimethylacetal)?

What are your experiences. It appears to be a very convenient way to analyze carboxylic acids as their methyl esters.

We are looking to derivatize a chiral free acid and determine the ratio of enantiomers on a chiral column.

Thanks in advance

Arne

[Consumer Products Guy]

Sylylation has failed for unknown reasons and we are not really set-up for doing extractive procedures (BF3/MeOH,...).

Has anyone tried the Methyl-8 reagent (N,N-Dimethylformamid-dimethylacetal)?

What are your experiences. It appears to be a very convenient way to analyze carboxylic acids as their methyl esters.

I worked in consumer products field for over 4 decades, analyzed thousands of fatty acids. That said: we never tried Methyl-8 reagent. We made methyl esters using either BF3/MeOH or H2SO4/MeOH and assayed on a polar column.

But there were a few instances we used BSTFA to make trimethysilyl derivatives and used a nonpolar column.