| Abstract: | A method is described for the quantitative determination of linear alkylene oxide-fatty alcohol condensates, nonionic surface active agents in water. Surface active agent is extracted from water samples with benzene. Surfactant is further extracted by salting out into chloroform. Capillary, supercritical fluid chromatography allows the separation and quantitative determination of oligometric constituents using carbon dioxide as a supercritical fluid. In this case, a fingerprint of the surfactant is obtained. Analysis time, however, is approximately 60 minutes. In the second case, the ether groups of ethylene oxide fatty alcohol condensates are cleaved by reaction with 50 percent hydrobromic acid in glacial acetic acid in sealed ampoules. The resulting alkyl bromides are extracted with carbon disulfide and chromatographed by both the supercritical fluid, capillary column chromatography (SFC) and high resolution open tubular column gas chromatography (OTC – HRGC). Results are in good agreement between these two techniques. |
