Ionic liquids as mobile phase additives in high-performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection: Application to the determination of heterocyclic aromatic amines in meat-based infant foods

The beneficial effects of several ionic liquids (ILs) as mobile phase additives in high-performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection for the determination of six heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAs) have been evaluated for first-time. The studied ionic liquids were 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (BMIm-BF₄), 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (HMIm-BF₄) and 1-methyl-3-octylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (MOIm-BF₄). Several chromatographic parameters have been evaluated in the presence or absence of ILs, or using ammonium acetate as the most common mobile phase additive, with three different C18 stationary phases. The effect of the acetonitrile content was also addressed. In general, best resolution, lower peak-widths (up to 72.1% lower) and lower retention factors are obtained when using ILs rather than ammonium acetate as mobile phase additives. The main improvement was obtained in the baseline noise, being 360% less noisy for BMIm-BF₄, 310% for HMIm-BF₄, and 227% for MOIm-BF₄, when compared to ammonium acetate at +1000 mV. Different chromatographic methods using the best conditions for each IL were also evaluated and compared. Finally, the best chromatographic conditions using 1 mM of BMIm-BF₄ as mobile phase additive, the Nova-Pak^® C18 column, 19% (v/v) of acetonitrile content in the mobile phase, and +1000 mV in the ECD, have been applied for the chromatographic analysis of six HAs contained in meat-based infant foods. The whole extraction method of meat-based infant foods using focused microwave-assisted extraction and solid-phase extraction has also been optimized. Extraction efficiencies up to 89% and detection limits ranged between 9.30 and 0.165 ng g⁻¹ have been obtained under optimized conditions.