The Application Notebook
Jonas Henschel1, Alexander Schriewer1, Heiko Hayen1, and Wen Jiang2, 1Institute of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry, University of Münster, Münster, Germany, 2HILICON AB
In recent decades, the use of artificial sweeteners greatly increased. As sugar substitutes they have become popular in today’s calorieâconscious society. The most commonly used artificial sweeteners in beverages and food are acesulfame, aspartame, cyclamate, neohesperidin dihydrochalcone (NHDC), neotame, saccharin, and sucralose. Some of them show resistance to wastewater treatment and distribute in the aquatic environment as emerging contaminants. In addition, concerns about health risks from the artificial sweeteners have been raised as well (1–3).
The analytical challenge is to simultaneously determine the artificial sweeteners with diverse physicochemical properties. Considering the polar and hydrophilic nature of these compounds, hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) should be considered as an alternative to commonly used reversed-phase liquid chromatography. In this application, we used one iHILIC-Fusion(+) column packed with charge modulated hydroxyethyl amide silica, which combines hydrophilic partitioning, weak electrostatic interactions, and hydrogen bonding in HILIC separation.
Experimental
LC–MS–MS system: Advance UHPLC with a CTC PAL autosampler and Bruker EVOQ™ Elite triple quadrupole system with electrospray ionization; multiple reaction monitoring mode (MRM) in ESI(+) and ESI(-) was used for selective and sensitive detection, see details in Table 1.
Column: 150 × 2.1 mm, 3.5-µm 100Å iHILIC-Fusion(+) (P/N 100.152.0310, HILICON AB, Sweden)
Gradient elution: A) acetonitrile; B) 10 mM ammonium formate, pH = 3.5; gradient elution from (95/5) A/B to (84/16) A/B in 8.5 min.
Flow rate: 0.3 mL/min
Column temperature: 40 °C
Injection volume: 5 µL
Sample preparation: details on request
Results and Conclusion
Seven artificial sweetener standards can be simultaneously determined by the combination of iHILIC-Fusion(+) HILIC column and EVOQ™ Elite triple quadrupole MS–MS in a 12 min run, as shown in Figure 1. The developed method was verified to detect artificial sweeteners in the diet cola of a well-known brand. After a simple and fast sample preparation, we can identify acesulfame, cyclamate, and aspartame in the tested diet cola (Figure 2).
Figure 1: LC–MS–MS chromatograms of seven artificial sweetener standards with iHILIC-Fusion(+).
Figure 2: LC–MS–MS chromatograms of diluted and degassed diet coke with iHILIC-Fusion(+).
This work describes an efficient HILIC–MS method for separation and detection of artificial sweeteners. It can be further developed to a routine analysis method with a combination of HILIC and aerosol-based detectors (ELSD, NQAD, and CAD) and used in different application areas.
References
HILICON AB
Tvistevägen 48, SE-90736 Umeå, Sweden
Tel.: +46 (90) 193469
E-mail: info@hilicon.com Website: www.hilicon.com
The 26th Norwegian Symposium on Chromatography
March 29th 2024The 26th Norwegian Symposium on Chromatography was held 21–23 January 2024. The symposium has strong traditions in the Norwegian separation science community, serving as a forum for excellent scientific talks, networking, and social events.
Adjustable Polyacrylamide Stationary Phases Enhance Separation Performance in Liquid Chromatography
June 12th 2023Adjustable polyacrylamide stationary phases developed by researchers enhance separation performance in liquid chromatography, according to a recent publication. The study demonstrates the synthesis of vinyl modified silica and the successful preparation of polyacrylamide modified silica (PAM-SIL) stationary phases, allowing for fine control of separation performance.
An Interview with AI About Its Potential Role in Separation Science
May 17th 2023We interviewed an AI program (ChatGPT) for LCGC North America asking questions about AI and its role in various applications for separation science to include data analysis, and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), hydrophilic-interaction chromatography (HILIC), reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RPLC), liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS), gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS), high resolution mass spectrometry (HRIM–MS), high resolution tandem mass spectrometry (HRMS/MS), and related topics.