Comparison of Various Sorbents for the Enrichment of Samples of Aliphatic Amines Using Solid-Phase Extraction Prior to the Determination by HPLC with Fluorimetric Detection

Abstract

Possibilities of the determination of lower aliphatic amines by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with fluorimetric detection after derivatization with o-phthaldialdehyde (OPA) and sample enrichment using solid-phase extraction were investigated. Various materials including octadecyl silica and strong and weak cation exchangers with organic matrices were compared as the sorbents for enrichment of aqueous samples of amines. The best results were achieved using the weak cation exchanger Spheron C 1000 as the sorbent and methanolic perchloric acid as the desorption liquid in the enrichment step. The recovery, linearity and detection limits of the method were determined. The concentration limits of determination of the amines are in the range of nmole.l⁻¹, with the enrichment factor of 240 in the preconcentration step.