ISO 11337:2004 specifies a method for determining epsilon-caprolactam and omega-laurolactam in polyamides by gas chromatography. It is suitable particularly for the determination of epsilon-caprolactam in polyamide 6 and omega-laurolactam in polyamide 12. Bearing in mind that gas chromatography offers a wide range of possible conditions, the method specified is that shown to have been suitable in practice.
Two variants of the basic method are specified:
Method A is an extraction method with boiling methanol, and the extract is injected into a gas chromatograph.Method B is a method using a solvent, and the solution is injected into a gas chromatograph.
Method A is suitable for the determination of epsilon-caprolactam and method B for epsilon-caprolactam and omega-laurolactam.