Microwave-assisted dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction coupling to solidification of floating organic droplet for colorants analysis in selected cosmetics by liquid chromatography

Abstract

A convenient and rapid method was developed for determination of fourteen colorants in selected cosmetics based on microwave-assisted dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (MA-DLLME) using solidification of the floating organic droplet (SFOD) as a clean-up step followed by high-performance liquid chromatography diode array detection (HPLC-DAD). DLLME was performed in a microwave device for reducing manual operations and facilitating rapid extraction equilibrium, resulting in high sample throughput and good extraction efficiency. Matrix effects could be effectively eliminated by SFOD technique. Various parameters affecting the extraction efficiency were optimized by multi-response surface methodology. The limits of detection and quantification were 0.25–3.2 mg kg−1 and 0.85–11.0 mg kg−1, respectively. The recoveries ranged from 90.2% to 106.1% with relative standard deviations of 0.30–3.1%. The method was successfully applied to the analysis of cosmetics, in which all the colorants could be quantified, and their median values ranged from 4.94 to 591 mg kg−1 for seventy-two lipsticks, and from 7.70 to 1.73 × 103 mg kg−1 for fifty eye shadows, respectively. The proposed protocol could achieve batch preparation of samples and avoid measurement errors from the obvious volume reduction of the recovered extract, and it could serve as a powerful tool for high-throughput analysis of multiple colorants in complex samples.