Liquid chromatography method to determine polyamines in thermosetting polymers

A simple, robust and sensitive analytical method to determine three polyamines commonly used as hardeners in epoxy resin systems and in the manufacture of polyurethane is reported. The studied polyamines are: one tetramine, TETA (triethylenetetramine), and two diamines, IPDA (Isophorone diamine) and TCD-diamine (4,7-methano-1H-indene-5,?-dimethanamine, octahydro-). The latter has an incompletely defined structure, and, as far as we know, has not been previously determined by other methods. All three polyamines contain primary amines; TETA also contains secondary amines.The analytical method involves derivatization with 6-aminoquinolyl-N-hydroxysuccinimidyl carbamate, used for the first time for these compounds, followed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis with a fluorescence (FL) detector (λ excitation 248 nm, λ emision 395 nm). The HPLC-DAD-LTQ Orbitrap MS was used in order to provide structural information about the obtained derivatized compounds. The hybrid linear ion trap LTQ Orbitrap mass spectrometer has been introduced in recent years and provides a high mass accuracy. The structures of the derivatized analytes were identified from the protonated molecular ions [M+H]+ and corresponded to the fully labelled analytes.The following analytical parameters were determined for the method using the HPLC-FL: linearity, precision (2.5–10%), instrumental precision intraday (0.8–1.5%) and interday (2.9–6.3%), and detection limits (0.02–0.14 mg L−1). The stability of stock solutions and derivatized compounds was also investigated. The method was applied to determine the amine free content in epoxy resin dust collected in workplaces.