Characterization of mixtures of biocidal oligoguanidines by capillary electrophoresis and high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry

J Chromatogr A. 2009 Jan 2;1216(1):113-8. doi: 10.1016/j.chroma.2008.11.023. Epub 2008 Nov 18.

Abstract

The polycondensation of guanidine hydrochloride and 2,2'-(ethylenedioxy)bis(ethylamine) leads to various types of oligomeric guanidines exhibiting a broad spectrum of biocidal activities. In the present work a reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic method with a gradient consisting of aqueous 0.1% trifluoroacetic acid and acetonitrile as mobile phase has been developed to separate these oligoguanidines according to type and chain length. The combination with electrospray mass spectrometry allowed the identification of the various compounds. By this technique, some structures already suggested in the literature could be confirmed, and several additional oligoguanidines not yet reported could be identified. As a complementary technique, capillary zone electrophoresis was investigated. Best results were obtained with carrier electrolytes consisting of phosphoric acid in water/acetonitrile mixtures. Although the number of peaks that could be separated by the electrophoretic method was considerably lower than in case of the chromatographic method, capillary electrophoresis in combination with UV detection at 195nm may still be a fast method suitable for quantitation of some of the major compounds and for monitoring the reaction rate during the polycondensation reaction.

MeSH terms

  • Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid
  • Disinfectants / analysis*
  • Disinfectants / chemistry
  • Electrophoresis, Capillary
  • Guanidine / chemistry
  • Guanidines / analysis*
  • Guanidines / chemistry
  • Mass Spectrometry

Substances

  • Disinfectants
  • Guanidines
  • Guanidine