I was looking for a column capable of getting DEA from the caustic. These caustics contain dirt, NH3, and several sulfur species. I would need to use FID. Please don't suggest a very expensive column, I won't buy it. I have a variety of old/used columns: wax, methylsiloxane, plots, and a few odd fellows...anyone with a prefered phase that could handle the caustic and not fall apart in a few runs? Would you go split? Temps for inlet and oven. Amount of injection. I'm not sure of the exact amount of DEA.
I recently boiled the caustic on a hot plate and returned to volume with water. Place on Antek N analyzer and came up with @8% DEA. This value seemed a little too high and I assumed this was caused by N salts. But the conc may be that high.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Assuming you are discussing capillary columns and not packed columns, even so, the presence of salts will make your analysis difficult if not impossible to be accurate.

I would think that LC or even TLC might be a better solution, but that was not your question, was it?

a middle polarity phase would be best, and a thicker film rather than a thinner one.

Good luck

Les - try this (I must admit I haven't tried it, but the chemistry sounds OK). Add to your mixture acetone. A carbonyl and a primary amine forms a Schiff base (exothermic reaction). Then neutralise your caustic with dilute HCl and inject. Your liner should obviously be cleaned very often.
Another option: Convert the caustic with CO2 to the carbonate - the amine might also react, but the amine can probably be liberated again with acetone. Good luck - Ian.