Simultaneous separation of nonionic surfactants and polyethylene glycols by reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography

Chromium(VI) oxide oxidation of non-ethoxylated and ethoxylated alcohols for determination by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

A new derivatization procedure to increase the sensitivity of electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) to non-ethoxylated and ethoxylated alcohols was investigated. The analytes were oxidized with chromium(VI) oxide and the resulting carboxylic and ethoxy-carboxylic acids were isolated by extraction with ethyl acetate; the extracts were alkalinized and infused into the ESI-MS system working in the negative-ion mode. The yields of the combined oxidation-extraction were ca. 100% for non-ethoxylated fatty alcohols dissolved in acetone and they decreased moderately in samples containing increasing amounts of water (e.g., a 75% yield was obtained with 50% water). Ethoxylated alcohols with more than two ethylene oxide units resulted in yields of ca. 60%. Low limits of detection (LODs) were obtained when the procedure was applied to the analysis of body-care products and cosmetics containing fatty alcohols, e.g., in a varicose-vein cream, the LODs were 25 microg cetyl alcohol and 7.5 microg stearyl alcohol (detected as palmitic acid and stearic acid, respectively) per gram of sample. High molecular mass alcohols were also detected in seawater after pre-concentration by solid-phase extraction. Thus, the proposed method is particularly valuable for use in industrial samples having complex matrices and in environmental samples and it is competitive with other methods for the analysis of trace amounts of fatty alcohols.

On the determination of underivatised fatty alcohol ethoxylates by electrospray ionisation–mass spectrometry

The oligomers of fatty alcohol ethoxylates (FAEs) exhibit large sensitivity differences in mass spectrometry with electrospray ionisation (ESI-MS) and atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI). Standards of the oligomers from m=1 to 7 ethylene oxide units (EOs) and linear alkyl chains from n=10 to 18 carbon atoms were infused to examine the relative sensitivities or response factors in several media. The response factors of the [M+H]+ and [M+Na]+ peaks in 9:1 acetonitrile/water and methanol/water media containing acid buffers increased following irregular patterns when n and m increased. In methanol/water the response factors depended on the parity of m, being larger than the average trend for the oligomers with an even value of m with respect to those having an odd value. This was attributed to the presence of an uncompensated C-O-C or C-O-H dipole in the former oligomers. The advantages of using ESI over APCI and of measuring the [M+H]+ peaks in an acid methanol/water medium containing 0.1 M HCl are discussed. The advantages and limitations of using models of the response factors to evaluate oligomer concentrations with a reduced set of selected standards are examined. The determination of underivatised FAEs using acid media was made compatible with previous HPLC separation by implementing either a triconcentric nebulizer fed with an acid liquid sheath, or a capillary T-union inserted between the column outlet and the biconcentric nebulizer, and fed with an acid stream provided by a syringe pump.

Thermodynamic study of retention in liquid exclusion–adsorption chromatography

The retention behaviour of fatty alcohol ethoxylates and fatty acid methyl ester ethoxylates on various reversed-phase columns in acetone-water has been studied in the regime of liquid exclusion-adsorption chromatography at different temperatures. Straight lines were obtained in the van't Hoff plots. The entropy and enthalpy changes were found to be negative (at least in the range of lower oligomers) and showed a dependence of the number of oxyethylene units. For higher oligomers, both entropy and enthalpy changes approach a constant value. This can be explained by the existence of a rather thick layer of organic solvent close to the surface of the stationary phase.

Retention of 3,5-dinitrobenzoyl derivatives of linear alcohol polyethoxylates in reversed-phase liquid chromatographic system with acetonitrile–water mobile phase

The influence of mobile phase composition (acetonitrile-water ratio) on the separation of derivatised linear alkyl polyethoxylates (LAEs) is evaluated using thermodynamic quantities (Gibbs energy, enthalpy and entropy). In comparison to homologue series of alcohols oligomers of LAEs show irregular chromatographic behaviour that is demonstrated in irregular changes of thermodynamic quantities. It might be explained considering an influence of some of the following processes or their combinations on the retention of LAEs. These processes are solvation of oxyethylene chains in mobile phase, their interaction with silanols on silica surface of stationary phase and possibly their conformation changes. The composition of a mobile phase affects the mentioned processes and that is why the retention of LAEs is strongly (for the reversed-phase system unusually) sensitive to this composition in the studied range (volume fraction of acetonitrile phi = 0.90, 0.96 and 0.98). The experimental data also support the idea of the active role of stationary phase in the reversed-phase system.

Retention mechanism of fatty alcohol ethoxylates in reversed-phase liquid chromatography

Fatty alcohol ethoxylates (FAEs) are widely used nonionic surfactants that have distributions in both alkyl and poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) chain length. Generally, two-dimensional liquid chromatography technique is required for the complete characterization of both distributions. By selecting a proper stationary and mobile phase condition, however, we can obtain fully resolved chromatograms of a FAE sample (Brij 30) with respect to both alkyl and PEO chain length by using a single reversed-phase C18 column and aqueous acetonitrile mobile phase. FAEs show a peculiar reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RPLC) retention behavior with an aqueous-organic mobile phase, the retention mechanism of which has not been fully elucidated. For a fixed alkyl chain length, FAEs with higher-molecular-mass PEO block elutes first and the van't Hoff plot of the retention factor shows a curvature. The unique retention behavior can be understood from the opposite thermodynamic characteristics associated with RPLC retention of PEO block and alkyl chain: the sorption process of PEO to the non-polar stationary phase shows deltaH(o) > 0 and deltaS(o) > 0 while the alkyl chain shows deltaH(o) < 0 and deltaS(o) < 0 in contrast. The relative magnitude of the two contributions can change the elution order of the FAE. Therefore the often found, inverted elution order of FAEs (the early elution of FAEs with longer PEO block) is due to the positive enthalpic interaction of PEO blocks, which is a characteristic of the hydrophobic interaction. And the curvature of the van't Hoff plots was analyzed assuming the temperature dependent thermodynamic variables.

Retention mechanism of poly(ethylene oxide) in reversed-phase and normal-phase liquid chromatography

The retention behavior of low- and high-molecular-mass poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) in reversed-phase (RP) and normal-phase (NP) liquid chromatography was investigated. In RPLC using a C18 bonded silica stationary phase and an acetonitrile-water mixture mobile phase, the sorption process of PEO to the stationary phase showed deltaH(o) > 0 and deltaS(o) > 0. Therefore, PEO retention in RPLC separation is an energetically unfavorable, entropy-driven process, which results in an increase of PEO retention as the temperature increases. In addition, at the enthalpy-entropy compensation point the elution volume of PEO was very different from the column void volume. These observations are quite different from the RPLC retention behavior of many organic polymers. The peculiar retention behavior of PEO in RPLC separation can be understood in terms of the hydrophobic interaction of this class of typical amphiphilic compounds with the non-polar stationary phase, on the one hand, and with the aqueous mobile phase, on the other. The entropy gain due to the release of the solvated water molecules from the PEO chain and the stationary phase is believed to be responsible for the entropy-driven separation process. On the other hand, in NPLC using an amino-bonded silica stationary phase and an acetonitrile-water mixture mobile phase, PEO showed normal enthalpy-driven retention behavior: deltaH(o) < 0 and deltaS(o) < 0, with the retention decreasing with increasing temperature and PEO eluting near the column void volume at the enthalpy-entropy compensation point. Therefore, high-resolution temperature gradient NPLC separation of high-molecular-mass PEO samples can be achieved with relative ease. The molecular mass distribution of high-molecular-mass PEO was found to be much narrower than that measured by size-exclusion chromatography.

Liquid chromatography of polyethylene glycol mono- and diesters: functional macromolecules or block copolymers?

The chromatographic behavior of polyoxyethylene-based polymers with adsorbing hydrophobic end-fragments was studied under two types of interaction conditions for the ethylene oxide (EO) component of such heteropolymers (which are either critical or of the size-exclusion type). In a theoretical part we assume a wide-pore situation, where the molecules are smaller than pores, and consider models of two-component diblock and triblock copolymers having quite strongly adsorbing blocks. A new step is made to extend a theory from difunctional macromolecules with point-type end-groups to triblock copolymers. It is shown that A-B-A triblocks with adsorbing A-blocks and with a "critical" B-block behave in chromatography like difunctionals with effective end-group interactions. Another important finding is the existence of a second critical region, which was observed on most of the studied columns. This region can be used to separate di- and triblocks from each other. Additionally, the individual oligomers of triblocks can be separated to the baseline. Complete separations of both diblocks and triblocks in one single chromatogram can be achieved by using a step gradient between two types of studied condtions.