Analysis of the equations for the temperature dependence of the retention index. II. Physico-chemical meaning of the parameters.
A general expression for the meaning of various parameters from the retention index-temperature equations was found. This is a linear combination of two solute dependent factors consisting of differences of enthalpies and respective entropies of solution, between the solute and the reference inferior n-alkane. The particular coefficients for each parameter are stationary phase dependent factors. They were calculated from methylene contributions to the thermodynamic functions of solution in SE-30 and Carbowax-20M, revealing the influence of the used temperature range. A short review of structural influences on dI/dT is included.