DETERMINATION OF ALCOHOLS BY HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY AFTER PRECOLUMN DERIVATIZATION WITH 2-(4-CARBOXYPHENYL)-5,6-DIMETHYLBENZIMIDAZOLE

A sensitive method for the determination of fatty alcohols using high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection has been developed. The alcohols were derivatized with 2-(4-carboxyphenyl)-5,6-dimethylbenzimidazole to their esters in the presence of 4-piperidinopyridine and 1-isopropyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)carbodiimide perchlorate. The resulting esters were extracted with a Sep-Pak ODS cartridge, and then the esters were separated on a reversed-phase column (Zorbax ODS) with methanol-propan-2-ol (85:15, v/v) as the mobile phase. The esters were detected by fluorescence spectrophotometry (excitation 338 nm, emission 428 nm). The limits of detections for alcohols were 0.2-0.4 pg per 20-mu-l (signal-to-noise ratio of 3) in an acetonitrile solution.