Environmentally evaluated HPLC-ELSD method to monitor enzymatic synthesis of a non-ionic surfactant

Chemistry Central Journal

Yasser Gaber¹  Cecilia Orellana Åkerman²  Rajni Hatti-Kaul² 

[1] Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Beni-Suef University, Salah Salem street, 62511 Beni-Suef, Egypt

[2] Department of Biotechnology, Center for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Lund University, P.O. Box 124, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden

关键词: HPLC-EAT;    Mass spectrometry;    Non-ionic surfactant;    Evaporative light scattering detector;    Chromatographic separation;    Green analytical chemistry;   

Others  :  787778
DOI  :  10.1186/1752-153X-8-33

 received in 2014-03-04, accepted in 2014-05-15,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Background

N-Lauroyl-N-methylglucamide is a biodegradable surfactant derived from renewable resources. In an earlier study, we presented an enzymatic solvent-free method for synthesis of this compound. In the present report, the HPLC method developed to follow the reaction between lauric acid/methyl laurate and N-methyl glucamine (MEG) and its environmental assessment are described.

Results

Use of ultraviolet (UV) absorption or refractive index (RI) detectors did not allow the detection of N-methyl glucamine (MEG). With Evaporative light scattering detector ELSD, it was possible to apply a gradient elution, and detect MEG with a limit of detection, LOD = 0.12 μg. A good separation of the peaks: MEG, lauric acid, product (amide) and by-product (amide-ester) was achieved with the gradient program with a run time of 40 min. The setting of ELSD detector was optimized using methyl laurate as the analyte. LC-MS/MS was used to confirm the amide and amide-ester peaks. We evaluated the greenness of the developed method using the freely available software HPLC-Environmental Assessment Tool (HPLC-EAT) and the method got a scoring of 73 HPLC-EAT units, implying that the analytical procedure was more environmentally benign compared to some other methods reported in literature whose HPLC-EAT values scored up to 182.

Conclusion

Use of ELSD detector allowed the detection and quantification of the substrates and the reaction products of enzymatic synthesis of the surfactant, N-lauroyl-N-methylglucamide. The developed HPLC method has acceptable environmental profile based on HPLC-EAT evaluation.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Gaber et al.; licensee Chemistry Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

Scheme 1

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