Rt-to-RI: A Python Tool for Automated Conversion of Retention Time (Rt) to Retention Index (RI) in Gas Chromatography and Instrumental Aroma Analysis
摘要
In gas chromatography (GC), and particularly in GC olfactometry (GC-O), the retention times (Rt) of independent measurements are only comparable to a limited extent, as they depend strongly on the equipment, temperature programme and measurement conditions. Although retention indices (RI) are routinely used to identify individual substances, there is currently no freely available and easily accessible solution for converting complete chromatograms into RI-scaled data sets. This work presents a Python-based open-source tool (Rt-to-RI) that enables the automated conversion of complete GC chromatograms from retention time to retention index. The tool processes standard raw data formats (.csv, .txt), calculates RI values according to Kováts (Helv Chim Acta 41(7):1915-1932,