High-performance liquid chromatographic separation and determination of fluorescent whitening agents in detergents
Abstract
A simple, rapid, precise and accurate method for determining the fluorescent whitening agents commonly used in detergents is described. The method is based on simple extraction from the detergent by methanol and on direct injection of the extract, without further purification. The extracted whitening agents were separated using a reversed-phase column (RP-18) and by ion-pair formation. The mobile phase was methanol-water (43 + 57) containing 0.005 M triethylammonium chloride, 0.002 5 M sodium acetate and 0.002 5 M acetic acid. Depending on the type of whitening agent present, the determination can be simplified by using methanol-water (1 + 1) as the mobile phase. Fluorimetric detection makes the method highly sensitive and specific.
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