Sensitive determination of glycerol by derivatization using a HPLC-DAD method in biodiesel samples?

Analytical Methods Pub Date: 2015-07-30 DOI: 10.1039/C5AY01761K

Abstract

Biodiesel is mainly produced through a transesterification reaction which yields biodiesel and glycerol, a by-product. This article describes the quantification of glycerol based on high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) using a diode array detector (DAD) in various biodiesel samples through post-derivatization. Glycerol was converted into a UV active product i.e. glyceryl tribenzoate (GTB) through a simple and effective esterification reaction using benzoyl chloride and copper chloride as the catalyst under mild conditions. Optimized reaction conditions (affording a 90% yield) were obtained by using copper chloride (17 mol%), benzoyl chloride (12.0 equiv.) and triethyl amine (11.0 equiv.). The limit of detection and limit of quantification were found to be 0.23 μg mL?1 and 0.76 μg mL?1, respectively. The developed and validated HPLC-DAD method is sensitive, selective, reproducible and successfully applied for the quantification of glycerol in biodiesel from various sources.

Graphical abstract: Sensitive determination of glycerol by derivatization using a HPLC-DAD method in biodiesel samples
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