Analysis of chlorinated, sulfochlorinated and sulfonamide derivatives of n-tetradecane by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry

Abstract

The photosulfochlorination of n-tetradecane by sulfuryl chloride leads to a reaction mixture containing unreacted n-tetradecane, chloro n-tetradecanes and n-tetradecanesulfonyl chlorides. Direct and simultaneousGCanalysis of the mixture of the sulfochlorinated and chlorinated isomers is followed by mass spectrometry identification of all the components either by electron impact (EI-MS) and by negative and positive chemical ionisation (NCI-MS and PCI-MS). With the goal of performing an accurate quantitative GC analysis, and as n-tetradecanesulfonyl chlorides prone to degrade partially into the corresponding chlorides, the former are converted to N,N-diethylsufonamides, more stable thermally, and then analysed by GC/EI-MS and GC/PCI-MS. The chloro n-tetradecanes, sulfonylchlorides and sulfonamides spectra present strong similarities. However, some differences between terminal and internal isomers are noticed and the peculiar behaviour of sulfonamides is emphasized.