Any idea where should I start with?

[mzhang]

Hi

I am identifying unknown organic compounds from a solid material. I already know the majority ingredients of it, and they are not soluble in most organic solvents (metal and teflon). So I plan to use some organic solvents to solve the organic compounds from my material. Any idea where should I start with? GC or LC ? What solvents?

Thank you!

[Don_Hilton]

The best technique depends on the nature of the sample and what kinds of things are of interest and what kinds of things are likely to be there. If you expect the organics to be somethign like petroelum residues, GC would be a good bet and non-polar solvents would be good. If you expect the organics to be things like sugars or peptides, LC would be a better bet. If you have no idea of what to expect, gain an understanding of the souce and history of the sample. If that does not reveal anything, keep trying solvents. If you have enough material, you may be able to use IR or NMR to make some guesses as to the kinds of compunds you are working with.

[mzhang]

Thank you very much for your reply!

I have no info about the sample. So what solvents do you think I can start with?

[oscarBAL]

Hi! As Don states; it's dependes of the nature of the organic compound you expect to find.
I wonder if use a different ionization technique such as DART, Maldi, ASAP or something like that could be an option.

[Zuhairdi]

well, as you said that they r not soluble in most organic solvent.. that's mean they r polar.. try dissolve it in water.. then, if you used water as the solvent, the best option for instrument is LC... if u think that organic compound contains a metal ions, try digesting it... then run at AAS.. you can get a bunch of info about metal ion contain in ur sample by using aas...