Aromatic solvents possess the strongest solvency of the hydrogen types, but various air pollution control districts have established maximum limits on the amount that may be present in organic coatings. In the proposed procedure, high efficiency liquid chromatography is used to determine total aromatics in enamels and lacquer thinners, their separation is obtained across a small bore column containing silica beads of controlled porosity without modifier. The method is rapid, accurate and applicable to a broad range of solvent blends. (Author/RH)