Determination of phenolic antioxidants by micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography with electrochemical detection

A new and efficient method for the determination of synthetic phenolic antioxidants (SPAs) has been developed by using micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography (MECC) with electrochemical detection. Under the optimum conditions, all analytes were successfully separated within 13 min at the separation voltage of 18 kV in a 20 mmol/L borate running buffer (pH 7.4) containing 25 mmol/L sodium dodecyl sulfate. The excellent linearity was obtained in the concentration range from 5.0 × 10−4 to 2.0 × 10−6 mol/L and the detection limits (S/N = 3) of propyl gallate (PG), tert-butylhydroquinone (TBHQ), butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) range from 2.9 × 10−7 to 2.7 × 10−6 mol/L. This method has been proved to be effective and successfully applied for the determination of SPA in food products, providing a promising and convenient entry to monitor the superscale use of phenolic antioxidants.