Determination of fatty alkyl dimethyl tertiary amines by gas chromatography in the synthesis of cationic surfactants

Abstract

A method to determine fatty alkyl dimethyl tertiary amines by gas chromatography (GC) was set up using HP-INNOWax capillary column, hydrogen flame ionization detector (FID) and temperature programming. The linearities were all excellent in the range of 0.005-1.0 g/L with the correlation coefficients being above 0.9996. The limits of detection (LODs, S/N=3) of the method were between 0.001 g/L and 0.002 g/L, and the limits of quantification (LOQs, S/N=10) were between 0.003 g/L and 0.005 g/L. The recoveries ranged between 90% and 130% with relative standard deviations of 1.3%-6.9% (n=6). The proposed method has the advantages of wide linear range, higher recovery, and selectivity, which was suitable for the quantitative analysis of fatty alkyl dimethyl tertiary amines and monitoring process control in industrial production. The method was faster and more accurate than titration, and also precluded the need for pre-column derivatization and determination by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.