Rapid Direct Analysis of Acrylamide Residue in Polyacrylamide Thickening Agents by HPLC

Abstract

Acrylamide residues in complex polyacrylamide-hydrocarbon mixtures can be analyzed by high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) in under 6 min. Analyses were achieved by isocratic runs (phosphate buffer mobile phase; flow rate of 0.3 mL/min) on a 200 × 2.1 mm reversed-phase octadecylsily (ODS; C18) column and 20 × 2.1 mm guard column at a detection wavelength of 208 nm. The method is free of extraction, filtration, or conjugation steps and has a recovery of 99% from 0.1 to 2.0 ug/mL.