Abstract: A method of liquid chromatography for the determination of the yellow color coupler Y-116 is described.By using chemically bonded pellicular-nitrile as stationary phase and 5% tetrahydrofuran and 1% isopropanol in heptane as mobile phase, efficient separation of four components has been achieved.The Y-116 tautomers are characterized by the IE, NMR and MS spectroscopy and the by-products are identified.