Analysis of Non-Ionic Surfactant Triton X-100 Using Hydrophilic Interaction Liquid Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry

• Main Authors: Evelin Farsang, Violetta Gaál, Ottó Horváth, Erzsébet Bárdos, Krisztián Horváth
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-03-01
• Series: Molecules
• Subjects: octylphenol–polyethoxylate; non-ionic surfactant; hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography; gradient optimization
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/24/7/1223

It is well known that surfactants increase the solubility of hydrophobic organic compounds and cause adverse environmental effects. The removal of these compounds from the contaminated soil or ground-water is particularly difficult due to their water soluble feature. In this work, an ultra-high performance hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatographic method was developed for the separation of oligomers of Triton X-100 octylphenol-polyethoxylate non-ionic surfactant. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) was used to identify the Triton X-100 compounds. There was a 44 mass unit difference between two adjacent peaks that is the molar mass of one ethylene oxide group (&#8211;CH<inline-formula> <math display="inline"> <semantics> <msub> <mrow></mrow> <mn>2</mn> </msub> </semantics> </math> </inline-formula>CH<inline-formula> <math display="inline"> <semantics> <msub> <mrow></mrow> <mn>2</mn> </msub> </semantics> </math> </inline-formula>O&#8211;). A quadratic retention model was applied for the estimation of retention of the examined non-ionic surfactant and the optimization of gradient elution conditions. The optimized method was suitable for the baseline separation of 28 Triton X-100 oligomers in five minutes.