Vortex-assisted liquid–liquid microextraction coupled with derivatization for the fluorometric determination of aliphatic amines

A new one-step derivatization and microextraction technique was developed for the fluorometric determination of C1–C8 linear aliphatic primary amines in complex sample solutions containing high levels of amino acids. In this method, amines were derivatized with o-phthalaldehyde (OPA) and 2-mercaptoethanol (2-ME) in aqueous solution and extracted simultaneously by vortex-assisted liquid–liquid microextraction (VALLME). Parameters affecting the extraction efficiency were investigated in detail. The optimum conditions were as follows: 50 μL of isooctane as the extractant phase; 2.0 mL aqueous donor samples with 12 mM OPA, 24 mM 2-ME, and 0.1 M borate buffer at pH 10; 1 min vortex extraction time; centrifugation for 4 min at 6000 rpm. After centrifugation, the enriched analytes in the floated extractant phase were determined by HPLC–FL in less than 14 min. Under the optimum conditions, the limits of detection were of the order of 0.09–0.31 nM. The calibration curves showed good linearity over the investigated concentration range between 0.4 and 40 nM. The proposed method has been applied to the determination of aliphatic amines in acidophilus milk, beer, and Cu(II)/amino acid solution.

► Simultaneous microextraction and OPA/2-ME derivatization for the determination of aliphatic amines.
► Availability of vortex-assisted liquid–liquid microextraction.
► The importance of simultaneous derivatization and extraction procedure for improving sensitivity and selectivity.
► Effective elimination of amino acid interference by isooctane extraction.
► Excellent stabilization of the isoindole derivatives in isooctane.