Sensitive determination of alkoxyethanols by pre-column derivatization with 1-anthroylnitrile and reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography.

A new method for simultaneous determination of alkoxyethanols (2-methoxyethanol, 2-ethoxyethanol, 2-isopropoxyethanol, and 2-butoxyethanol) by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with fluorescence detection has been developed. The alkoxyethanols and an internal standard (2-phenoxyethanol) were derivatized by treatment with 1-anthroylnitrile to give the anthroyl esters. The esterification was completed in 30 min in the presence of quinuclidine as base catalyst at room temperature. After stopping the reaction, an aliquot of the final solution was injected into the HPLC. The resulting anthroyl esters of the alkoxyethanols and the internal standard were separated on a C18 reversed-phase column with acetonitrile-water-acetic acid (65:35:0.1, v/v) as the mobile phase and detected fluorimetrically at excitation and emission wavelengths of 360 nm and 460 nm, respectively. The detection limits of the derivatives as alkoxyethanols at a signal-to-noise ratio of 3 were in the range of 1-3 pg per injection. The minimal amounts of alkoxyethanols derivatized in the reaction mixture for derivatization to determine the limits of detection were approximately 0.5 ng. This HPLC method was applied to the determination of some of alkoxyethanols in the air of the workplace where the thinner containing alkoxyethanols was used for painting.