Determination of Polymer Additives-Antioxidants, Ultraviolet Stabilizers, Plasticizers and Photoinitiators in Plastic Food Package by Accelerated Solvent Extraction Coupled with High-Performance Liquid Chromatography

• Published in: Journal of chromatographic science 2015-07, Vol.53 (6), p.1026-1035
• Main Authors: Li, Bo, Wang, Zhi-Wei, Lin, Qin-Bao, Hu, Chang-Ying, Su, Qi-Zhi, Wu, Yu-Mei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antioxidants - analysis; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid - methods; Excipients - analysis; Food Packaging; Limit of Detection; Linear Models; Plasticizers - chemistry; Plastics - chemistry; Reproducibility of Results; Sonication
• ISSN: 0021-9665; 1945-239X
• DOI: 10.1093/chromsci/bmu159

An analytical method for the quantitative determination of 4 antioxidants, 9 ultraviolet (UV) stabilizers, 12 phthalate plasticizers and 2 photoinitiators in plastic food package using accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) coupled with high-performance liquid chromatography-photodiode array detector (HPLC-PDA) has been developed. Parameters affecting the efficiency in the process such as extraction and chromatographic conditions were studied in order to determine operating conditions. The analytical method of ASE-HPLC showed good linearity with good correlation coefficients (R ≥ 0.9833). The limits of detection and quantification were between 0.03 and 0.30 µg mL−1 and between 0.10 and 1.00 µg mL−1 for 27 analytes. Average spiked recoveries for most analytes in samples were >70.4% at 10, 20 and 40 µg g−1 spiked levels, except UV-9 and Irganox 1010 (58.6 and 64.0% spiked at 10 µg g−1, respectively), the relative standard deviations were in the range from 0.4 to 15.4%. The methodology has been proposed for the analysis of 27 polymer additives in plastic food package.