High-performance thin-layer chromatography of fluorescent whitening agents and their identification in detergents

Chemometrics-assisted excitation-emission fluorescence analytical data for rapid and selective determination of optical brighteners in the presence of uncalibrated interferences

This study describes a novel approach for the simultaneous determination of CBS-X and CXT as widely used optical brighteners in household detergent, by combining the advantage of the high sensitivity of molecular fluorescence, and the selectivity of second-order chemometric methods. The proposed method is assisted by second-order chemometric analyses employing the PARAFAC, SWATLD and APTLD that help us to determine CBS-X and CXT in laundry powders and environmental samples, through the unique decomposition of the three-way data array. Proposed method can provide the extraction of relative concentrations of the analytes, as well as the spectral profiles. This approach achieves the second-order advantage and in principle could be able to overcome the spectral uncalibrated interference problems in the determination of CBS-X and CXT at the ng g(-1) level. By spiking the known concentrations of these compounds to the real samples, the accuracy of the proposed methods was validated and recoveries of the spiked values were calculated. High recoveries (90.00%-113.33%) for the spiked laundry powders and real environmental samples indicate the present method successfully faces this complex challenge without the necessity of applying separation and preconcentration steps in environmental contaminations.

Determination of Tinopal CBS-X in rice papers and rice noodles using HPLC with fluorescence detection and LC-MS/MS

To date there have been no reports of methods to determine Tinopal CBS-X. We developed a rapid and simple method to determine the Tinopal CBS-X content in rice noodles and rice papers using HPLC equipped with fluorescence detection. Heating the rice noodles and rice papers to 80°C after adding 75% methanol solution induced the release of Tinopal CBS-X from processed rice products. Tinopal CBS-X was separated using an isocratic mobile phase comprising 50% acetonitrile/water containing 0.4% tetrabutyl ammonium hydrogen sulphate at pH 8.0. The samples suspected to be positive by HPLC analysis were then confirmed by LC-MS/MS analysis. This study also investigated the Tinopal CBS-X content of three rice noodle products and two rice papers. The limits of quantification for rice papers and rice noodles were 1.58 and 1.51 µg kg(-1), respectively, and their correlation curves showed good linearity with r(2) ≥ 0.9997 and ≥ 0.9998, respectively. Moreover, rice papers had recoveries of 70.3-83.3% with precision ranging from 5.0% to 7.9%, whereas rice noodles had slightly lower recoveries of 63.4-78.7% and precisions of 8.5-11.5%. Only one rice noodle product contained Tinopal CBS-X, at around 2.1 mg kg(-1), whereas it was not detected in four other samples. Consequently, Tinopal CBS-X from rice noodles and rice papers can be successfully detected using the developed pre-treatment and ion-pairing HPLC system coupled with fluorescence detection.

Hot-water and solid-phase extraction of fluorescent whitening agents in paper materials and infant clothes followed by unequivocal determination with ion-pair chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

A comprehensive method for the determination of four stilbene-type disulfonate and one distyrylbiphenyl-type fluorescent whitening agents (FWAs) in paper materials (napkin and paper tissue) and infant clothes was developed. FWAs were extracted from paper material and cloth samples using a hot-water extraction, and the aqueous extracts were then preconcentrated with the newly developed Oasis WAX (mixed-mode of weak anion exchange and reversed-phase sorbent) solid-phase extraction cartridge. The analytes were unequivocal determined by ion pair chromatography coupled with negative electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-MS-MS), applying a di-n-hexyl-ammonium acetate (DHAA) as the ion-pairing reagent in mobile phase. Limits of quantitation (LOQ) were established between 0.2 and 0.9 ng/g in 2 g of samples. Recovery of five FWAs in spiked commercial samples was between 42 and 95% and RSD (n = 3) ranging from 2 to 11%. The method was finally applied to commercial samples, showing that two stilbene-type disulfonates were predominant FWAs detected in napkin and infant cloth samples.

Determination of fluorescent whitening agents in environmental waters by solid-phase extraction and ion pair liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry

A comprehensive method for the trace determination of four stilbene-type disulfonate and one distyrylbiphenyl-type fluorescent whitening agents (FWAs) in environmental water samples was developed and validated. Various solid-phase extraction (SPE) cartridges were investigated. The newly developed Oasis WAX (weak mixed-mode anion exchange and reversed-phase sorbent) SPE cartridge provides the optimal sample extraction results. The analytes were then identified and quantitated by liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-MS-MS) in negative ionization mode, applying di-n-hexylammonium acetate (DHAA) as the ion-pairing reagent in mobile phase. Limits of quantitation (LOQs) were established between 4 and 18 ng/l in 50 ml of water samples. Intrabatch and interbatch precision with their accuracy at two concentration levels were also investigated. Precision for these five FWAs, as indicated by RSD, proved to be less than 13 and 11%, respectively, for intra- and interbatch. Accuracy, expressed as the mean recovery, was between 68 and 97%. The method was finally applied to environmental water samples, showing the occurrence of five FWAs in both river water and wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluent samples.

Determination of fluorescent whitening agents in laundry detergents and surface waters by solid-phase extraction and ion-pair high-performance liquid chromatography

A simple method was developed to detect four stilbene-type disulfonate and one distyrylbiphenyl-type fluorescent whitening agents (FWAs) in household laundry detergents and surface waters by ion-pair high-performance liquid chromatography. The FWA concentrations in detergents were measured directly. The contents of FWAs in water samples were extracted by solid-phase extraction (C18-SPE) with ion-pairing reagent, and were then determined by an isocratic ion-pair chromatography (IPC) using a C18 column, applying tetrabutylammonium hydrogensulfate (TBA) as the ion-pairing reagent in mobile phase, and equipped with fluorescence detection. Water samples at various pH conditions for SPE were evaluated. Experimental results indicate that the proposed method is precise and sensitive in analyzing FWAs, and enables quantitation of 0.01-0.1 microg/l in 100 ml water samples. The recovery rates of FWAs in spiked water samples were between 73 and 89%, and the precision (RSD) ranged from 2.6 to 8.9%. Over 7200 microg/g of 4,4'-bis(2-sulfostryl)-biphenyl (DSBP) and 2320 microg/g of 4,4'-bis[(4-anilino-6-morpholino-1,3,5-triazine-2-yl)-amino]stilbene-2,2'-disulfonate (DAS1) were detected in household laundry detergents. Trace amounts of DSBP were detected in surface water samples ranging from 0.2 to 3.7 microg/l.

Separation of stilbenes by capillary electrophoresis and high-performance liquid chromatography

Stilbenes, fluorescence whitening agents (FWAs), are usually added to cleaning agents in household and in industry. Capillary electrophoresis (CE) was often applied to separate various compounds simultaneously for its multinomial advantages. In this paper, we established analytical methods of six diaminostilbenes with CE and ion-pair chromatography (IPC). The optimum mobile phase for IPC was 11.78 mM tetrabutylammonium hydrogen sulfate (TBA) aqueous and acetonitrile. An IPC method has been developed for simple and direct separation for diaminostilbenes, anionic substances, with TBA as ion-pair reagent. Satisfactory linear ranges (7.0 x 10(-3) approximately 3.0 x 10 microg/mL), correlation coefficients (0.9992-0.9999), and detection limits (6-13 ng/mL) were obtained. Separations were also performed by capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) using a buffer consisting of Tris (pH 10.1), n-tetradecyltrimethylammonium bromide (TTAB) and acetonitrile. A linear range of 5.0 x 10(-1) - 4.0 x 10 microg/mL, correlation coefficients between 0.9975 and 0.9998, and detection limits between 337 and 446 ng/mL were obtained. In particular, the separation of a pair of similar compounds (mass difference of 2) was achieved by addition of TTAB. The optimum analytical methods of CE and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) were applied to commercial household with direct analysis and standard addition. No significant bias were shown between them by t-test at 95% confidence level.