Influence of Capillary Gas Chromatographic Column on the Identification of Volatile Organic Compounds in Leather

The separation and identification of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in leather by different capillary gas chromatographic columns were investigated based on headspace combined gas chromatography - mass spectrometry (HS-GC/MS). The results indicated that the chromatograms obtained by various columns were significantly different. The category and quantity of VOCs obtained with polar column DB-WAX were relatively higher than that obtained with the weak-polar column DB-5ms. VOCs in leather include various substances with molecular characteristics from polarity to non-polarity. The identification results presented that the emitted components consisted of (1) aldehydes such as hexenal, heptanal, octanal, nonanal and benzaldehyde, (2) alcohols such as butanol, amyl-alcohol and iso-octanol, (3) alkanes such as n-pentadecane, n-hexadecane and n-heptadecane, (4) solvents such as ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, isooctyl acetate, dimethylformamide and butoxyethyl acetate.