Bachus et al. [1] recently described a new derivatisation method using 2-furoyl chloride for the characterisation of mixtures of polyethoxylated alcohols and their corresponding sulfates. This paper deals with the control of the derivatisation steps; hydrolysis and extraction conditions were optimised. The method is extended to the characterisation of alkyl sulfosuccinates, alkyl sulfoacetates and alkyl phosphates and to the analysis of residual polyethoxylated alcohols in surfactants. Extraction of non-ionic compounds using solid-phase extraction cartridges was performed before derivatisation. Residual amounts of alcohol were determined in five commercial anionic surfactants. Moreover, direct derivatisation without preliminary SPE in the same anionic surfactants proved to be efficient for dry samples.
Separation of alkyl sulfate ethoxymers is investigated on various high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) stationary phases: Acclaim C18 Surfactant, Surfactant C8, and Hypercarb. For a fixed alkyl chain length, ethoxymers are eluted in the order of increasing number of ethoxylated units on Acclaim C18 Surfactant, whereas a reversed elution order is observed on Surfactant C8 and Hypercarb. Moreover, on an Acclaim C18 Surfactant column, non-ethoxylated compounds are eluted in their ethoxymers distribution and the use of sodium acetate additive in mobile phase leads to a co-elution of ethoxymers. HPLC stationary phases dedicated to surfactants analysis are evaluated by means of the Tanaka test. Surfactant C8 presents a great silanol activity whereas Acclaim C18 Surfactant shows a high steric selectivity. For alkyl sulfates, linearity of the calibration curve and limits of detection and quantitation are evaluated. The amount of sodium laureth sulfate raw material found in commercial body product is in agreement with the specification of the manufacturer.
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