Chromatographic determination of non-ionic aliphatic surfactants of the alcohol polyethoxylate type in the environment

The chromatographic procedures available for the determination of alcohol polyethoxylates (AE) in environmental samples are reviewed. The proposed methods are classified according to their routine or confirmatory (i.e., structurally oriented) potential application. The routine analysis of AE is shown to depend crucially on the formation of derivatives amenable to UV-absorption or fluorescence detection in normal- or reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), or to volatile compounds suited for gas chromatography (GC) coupled to FID. The confirmatory methods are those requiring the mass spectrometric detection operating in the selected ion monitoring mode. Only HPLC-MS is currently capable of analysing unaltered AE. HPLC and GC separations are described together with the extraction/enrichment procedures used for the isolation of these compounds from aqueous and solid environmental matrices.