Determination of benzalkonium chloride by gas chromatography.

A new, simple, and useful approach for the analysis of benzalkonium chloride is presented. A gas chromatography (GC) has been used to pyrolyze benzalkonium chloride in a specific and reproducible manner to yield two tertiary amines for each homologue of benzalkonium chloride present. These are separated by GC and are used to determine the homologue composition of the benzalkonium chloride. These determinations can be made with an analysis time of 25 min/sample.