High Performance Liquid Chromato-Graphy Separations of Nitrosamines. II. Acyclic Nitrosamines

Abstract

The separation of acyclic nitrosamines by HPLC using a β-cyclodextrin bonded silien gel column and a C₁₈ reversed phase column was evaluated. Four groups of nitrosamines were used to evaluate the utility of both columns: (1.) methylmethyl-, methylethyl-, methylpropyl and methylbutyl-; (2.) ethylmethyl-, ethylethyl-, and ethylpropyl-; (3.) propylmethyl-, propylpropyl-, and propylbutyl-; and (4.) butylmethyl-, butylethyl-, butylpropyl-, and butylbutyl nitrosamines.

The results show that both columns performed well in separating the nitrosamines in each group, with the C₁₈ column requiring a higher percentage of organic modifier (methanol) than the β-cyclodextrin column. The β-cyclodextrin column was superior in separating all the E to Z isomers of short chain alkyl nitrosamines, while the C₁₈ column was superior in separating long alkyl chain nitrosamines and their E and Z isomers.

It, was also found that, the longer the alkyl chain the longer the retention time, while nitrosamines having the same number of carbons, for example ethylbutyl-and propylpropyleluted at virtually the same time, using both columns.