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Hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry to determine artificial sweeteners in environmental waters

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Abstract

Artificial sweeteners are food additives employed as sugar substitutes which are now considered to be emerging organic contaminants. In the present study, a method is developed for the determination of a group of artificial sweeteners in environmental waters. Considering the polar and hydrophilic character of these compounds, hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography is proposed for their separation as an alternative to traditional reversed-phase liquid chromatography. Two stationary phases with different chemistry were compared for this purpose. For the detection of the analytes, high-resolution mass spectrometry (Orbitrap) was employed to take advantage of its benefits in terms of reliable quantification and confirmation for the measurement of accurate masses. Solid-phase extraction was chosen as the sample treatment, in which the extract in a mixture of NH4OH:MeOH:ACN (1:4:15) was directly injected into the chromatographic system, simplifying the analytical procedure. The optimized method was validated on river and waste water samples. For example, in the case of effluent water samples, limits of detection ranged from 0.002 to 0.7 μg/L and limits of quantification ranged from 0.004 to 1.5 μg/L. Apparent (whole method) recoveries ranged from 57 to 74 % with intra-day precision (%RSD, n = 5) ranging from 6 to 25 %. The method was successfully applied to water samples from different rivers in Catalonia and different waste water treatment plants in Tarragona. Acesulfame, cyclamate, saccharine and sucralose were found in several samples.

Illustrative figure of the SPE/HILIC-HRMS method proposed

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Project CTQ2011-24179) for the financial support given. D. Salas would also like to thank the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for a grant (BES-2012-057792).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Analytical Chemistry and Organic Chemistry, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Campus Sescelades, Marcel·lí Domingo, s/n, 43007, Tarragona, Spain

    Daniela Salas, Francesc Borrull, Núria Fontanals & Rosa Maria Marcé

Authors
  1. Daniela Salas
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  2. Francesc Borrull
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  3. Núria Fontanals
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  4. Rosa Maria Marcé
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Núria Fontanals.

Additional information

Published in the topical collection Advances in LC-MS/MS Analysis with guest editors Damià Barceló and Mira Petrovic.

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Salas, D., Borrull, F., Fontanals, N. et al. Hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry to determine artificial sweeteners in environmental waters. Anal Bioanal Chem 407, 4277–4285 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-014-8330-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-014-8330-6

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