Development of methods for sorbitol quantitation in metal powder by HPLC

Abstract

Methods are developed for identification of sorbitol to determine further the quantitation of sorbitol in metal powder by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC). The sorbitol was converted into strong ultra­violet (UV)-absorbing derivatives with p-nitrobenzoyl chloride (PNBC) in the oven with 50 °C for 90mins. Five samples were generated by the same mode with different amount of PNBC but the same amount of sorbitol for the derivatization reaction. HPLC was performed on the C18 column with a concentration of the mobile phase in acetonitrile water (67:33) and the UV detector with a wavelength of 260nm. The flow rate of the operation was preferable with 0.5ml/min and a temperature of 25 °C was maintained in the HPLC oven for 40mins all along. The five samples were analyzed by HPLC one at a time. All the disturbances from solvents were detected before the identification of sorbitol. The chromatographic peak of the sorbitol in the five samples appeared constantly at almost the same particular moment. Thus, the identification of sorbitol was confirmed.