Mixed-bed polymeric o-nitrobenzophenone reagents for the on-line derivatization of amines in high performance liquid chromatography.

Several polymer-bound o-nitrobenzophenone reagents containing different detector-sensitive tags have been combined in the same reactor for the on-line derivatization of amine samples. The formation of multiple derivatives allows numerous opportunities for quantitation from the same injection, and also allows improved identification from the retention times of the multiple derivatives. Changing the reaction conditions changes the ratio of the products formed, so that changes in the ratio of peak heights and areas can also be used for analyte identification. In this work, propylamine was derivatized in acetonitrile on-line, precolumn. Changing the reaction conditions, of reaction time, temperature, solvent, presence of catalyst and the components of the reactor, changed the ratio of the derivatives formed. These changes in product formation with changing reaction conditions were applied to the identification and quantitation of amphetamine and methamphetamine in urine. The drugs were identified by the retention times of their derivatives, the ratio of the peak areas of the derivatives and the change in the ratios after changing reaction conditions. Each derivative was also used for quantitation of levels of spiked concentrations of amphetamine and methamphetamine, with relative errors less than 8%.