A method was developed for the determination of the content of aminobutanol by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) based on charge transfer reaction. Under the condition of a borax-boric acid buffer solution of pH 8.4, aminobutanol and tetra-chloro-benzoquinone reacted at 60℃ for 60 min, and were analyzed by an HPLC-ultraviolet detector. The charge-transfer complex was separated on an Agilent Extend C18 column (250 mm×4.6 mm, 5 μm) with 0.001% (v/v) triethylamine and methanol as the mobile phases for gradient elution at a flow rate of 1 mL/min. The limit of quantification of aminobutanol was 0.01 g/L, the linear range was 0.1-0.6 g/L, and the correlation coefficient (R2) was 0.9994. The spiked recoveries of the method were 98.3%-103.6% with relative standard deviations (RSDs) of 0.9%-1.6%. The method is simple and quick, and suitable for the rapid detection of aminobutanol.
Keywords: aminobutanol; charge transfer reaction; high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC); tetra-chloro-benzoquinone (TCBQ).