A rapid method based on ultra-performance convergence chromatography (UPC2) was developed for the analysis of 13 ultraviolet (UV) absorbents in plastic food contact materials. The UV absorbents were extracted from plastic food contact materials by supersonic extraction with methanol, purified by C18 solid phase extraction column, and analyzed via UPC2 before filtration with an organic filtration membrane (0.22 μm). An ACQUTY UPC2 HSS C18 SB chromatographic column (150 mm×3.0 mm, 1.8 μm) was used for the detection of the UV absorbents. An effective separation was achieved within 4 min under the optimized conditions. The mobile phases were supercritical carbon dioxide and isopropanol as a modifier. The results showed that the 13 UV absorbents exhibited good linear relationships in the respective linear ranges with the correlation coefficients no less than 0.9985. The limits of detection (S/N=3) were in the range of 0.05-0.15 mg/kg. The recoveries were from 86.8% to 115.7%, and the relative standard deviations were between 0.73% and 5.61%. This method is rapid, convenient, accurate and reliable, and can be used for the rapid determination of the 13 UV absorbents in plastic food contact materials.
Keywords: plastic food contact materials; ultra-performance convergence chromatography (UPC2); ultrasonic extraction; ultraviolet absorbents.