Ultrasound‐assisted temperature‐controlled ionic liquid emulsification microextraction coupled with capillary electrophoresis for the determination of parabens in personal care products

We developed a CE and ultrasound‐assisted temperature‐controlled ionic liquid emulsification microextraction method for the determination of four parabens (methyl paraben, ethyl paraben, propyl paraben, and butyl paraben) in personal care products including mouthwash and toning lotion. In the proposed extraction procedure, ionic liquid (IL, 1‐octyl‐3‐methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate) was used as extraction solvent, moreover, no disperser solvent was needed. Parameters affecting the extraction efficiency including volume of IL, heating temperature, ultrasonic time, extraction time, sample pH, ionic strength, and centrifugation time were optimized. Under the optimized conditions, the method was found to be linear over the range of 3–500 ng/mL with coefficient of determination (R²) in the range of 0.9990–0.9998. The LODs and LOQs for the four parabens were 0.45–0.72 ng/mL and 1.50–2.40 ng/mL, respectively. Intraday and interday precisions (RSDs, n = 5) were in the range of 5.4–6.8% and 7.0–8.7%, respectively. The recoveries of parabens at different spiked levels ranged from 71.9 to 119.2% with RSDs less than 9.5%.