The method for detection of residual solvents in ethyl cellulose was established which is headspace gas chromatography( GC ) , using the column of DB-624, FID as detector and nitrogen as the carrier gas, calculation of the contents of residual solvents by external standard method. The results show the linear relationship is good in the concentration range of the test. For the ethanol, the correlation coefficient is 0.999 8, the recovery is 99.1% and RSD is 2.2% and the limited of detection ( LOD ) is 5.04 μg/mL; for ethyl ether, the correlation coefficient is 0.9999 9, the recovery is 97.7%, RSD is 1.8% and the LOD is 0.51 μg/mL; for the toluene，the correlation coefficient is 0.999 8, the recovery is 98.1%, the RSD is 1.6% and the LOD is 1.81 μg/mL. The method has good specificity, repeatability and high sensitivity, and can be used for determination of residual solvents in ethyl cellulose.
