Determination of fluorescent whitening agents in infant clothes and paper materials by ion-pair chromatography and fluorescence detection

Asimple and rapid method was developed to simultaneously determine four stilbene-type disulfonate and one distyrylbiphenyl-type fluorescent whitening agents (FWAs) in infant clothes and paper materials by ion-pair chromatography. FWAs were extracted from cloth and papers samples using a hot-water extraction. The aqueous extract was then mixed with ion-pair reagent, extracted with C ¹⁸-SPE cartridges and eluted with methanol. The contents of FWAs were determined by an isocratic ion-pair chromatography with RP-C¹⁸ column and equipped with fluorescence detection. Limits of quantitation were 0.04 to 0.45 ng/g in 10 g of samples. Recovery of FWAs in spiked infant cloth and paper samples was between 76 to 92% and precision (RSD) ranging from 2.0 to 4.0%. Analysis of three infant clothes and six paper materials found concentrations of selected FWAs ranging between n.d. to 24 μg/g and n.d. to 3.8 μg/g, respectively.