Determination of dye intermediates in oxidative hair dyes by fused-silica capillary gas chromatography

Abstract

A fused-silica capillary gas chromatographic method is described for the determination of dye intermediates in oxidative hair dyes. An appropriate amount of hair dye sample is dissolved in 10 ml of methanol containing 0.25 g of ammonium thioglycolate and an appropriate amount of 2-amino-4-methylphenol as an internal standard. This solution is directly injected into a gas chromatograph. A fused-silica capillary column with cross-linked methyl silicone OV-1 or SE-54 as a liquid phase yields excellent resolution of dye intermediates. Some factors affecting the quantitation of dye intermediates are discussed. The proposed method gave good recoveries and reproducibilities, and permits simultaneous determination of various types of dye intermediates without any pretreatment. The use of a nitrogen-phosphorus detector allows the selective detection of nitrogen-containing dye intermediates. This simple and versatile method is applicable for the determination of dye intermediates in commercial hair dyes.