Determination of trace impurities in cosmetic intermediates by ion mobility spectrometry

The cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries are continuously demanding fast, efficient, cost-effective analytical methods to monitor production processes and assure end-product quality. The presence of residual reagents or impurities formed during a synthetic process can have an adverse impact on product quality, assurance of which requires using increasingly sensitive analytical methods to facilitate the detection and/or determination of toxic compounds with potentially hazardous effects on consumer's health. In this work, we assessed the potential of ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) for the detection and quantitation of dimethylaminopropylamine (DMAPA) residues in stearamidopropyldimethylamine (SAPDA) production samples. The influence of instrumental variables including solvent, solution drying time, injected volume and volatilization temperature was examined. The ensuing analytical method takes less than 1 min per analysis and uses only a few microlitres of sample. The calibration curve was linear over the DMAPA concentration range 0.030–0.500 μg mL−1. The proposed method was validated for use in control processes. The complex plasmagram for amidoamines allows the origin of cosmetic oils to be easily, expeditiously identified. Based on the results, IMS holds great promise for the qualitative and quantitative determination of the studied amide and various others in cosmetic products.

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► Simple, inexpensive and highly expeditious method for DMAPA determination.
► High sensitivity in complex samples.
► Identification and characterization of oligomers of amidoamines.