Prediction of gas chromatographic response factors by the PLS method

“Dietz” response factors (RF) have been measured under standard conditions for 100 substituted benzenes and pyridines. The data have been treated by the partial least squares (PLS) method, using as explanatory variables the molecular weight together with structural features such as the numbers of atoms of each element and of multiple bonds, functional groups, etc. The “Dietz” RF are explained to 84% of the variance by three PLS components. It is shown that Dietz RF can be predicted from the structural formulae for many classes of compounds with an average deviation of 0.05 within the model and 0.09 out of the model. This should be of considerable utility in the quantitative analysis of complex product mixtures by GC/MS, especially for those cases where some or all of the products are unavailable. The PREDICT.EXE program for the PC and Fortran code, PREDICT.FOR, as well as the raw data set used to derive the model are included on disk.