Determination of rate constants and activation energy of 3-chloro-1,2-propanediol hydrolysis by capillary electrophoresis with electrochemical detection

A method based on capillary electrophoresis with electrochemical detection (CE-ED) to calculate the rate constants and activation energy of 3-chloro-1,2-propanediol (3-MCPD) hydrolysis was described. Effects of several factors, such as the pH value and the concentration of the running buffer, separation voltage, injection time and the potential applied to the working electrode, were investigated to find the optimum conditions. With a 50 cm length of 25 μm diameter fused-silica capillary at a separation of 10 kV, well-defined separation of 3-chloro-1,2-propanediol from glycerol was achieved in 30 mmol/l borax (pH 9.24) within 13 min. Operated in a wall-jet configuration, a 328 μm copper-disk electrode used as the working electrode exhibits good response at 0.65 V (versus SCE) for 3-MCPD and glycerol. The rate constants of 3-MCPD hydrolysis at different temperatures were determined by monitoring the concentration changes of 3-MCPD. At 80, 85 and 90 °C, the measured rate constants of 3-MCPD hydrolysis were 3.8 × 10−3 min−1, 7.1 × 10−3 min−1 and 11.5 × 10−3 min−1, respectively. The activation energy for 3-MCPD hydrolysis was calculated to be 118.1 k J/mol, which is in good agreement with the value in the literature.