SummaryThe term "corrected retention volume" V/~ was introduced by Martin and James in 1952 and is the most important retention parameter in gas chromatography. Its calculation involves multiplication of the measured volume with the "compressibility correction factor" 3 (pi/po) 2 1 Followers misinterpreted the James and Martin statement that the finally obi -2 (hi~no) 3 1 tained "V/~ is the limiting value of VR as PJPo tends to unity" and introduced an additional recalculation of the corrected retention volume to standard conditions, 273 Kand p = 1 atm.The use of standard conditions has resulted in publication of a great deal of distorted thermodynamic data, and has largely resulted in the cessation of the use of GC to collect such data. Examples of distortions of thermodynamic data are given to demonstrate the need for not using "standard" conditions. The distortion imposed by correction to standard conditions has had almost no impact on the explosive growth of GC as an analytical technique, but has limited its use for more fundamental physical measurements.The physical meaning of the / 2 factor is the ratio of the gas pressure at the column outlet to the pressure in the column averaged over the column length i 2 = po/~. This unambiguously 3 defines the corrected retention volume as the analyte retention volume measured atthe column outlet and then recalculated to the column temperature and averaged column pressure:
Vp, = vR,o(r~/ro)i~ = vR(r~/ro)(po/~).