Analysis of Cationic Surfactants in Cosmetics By Reverse phase Ion-Pair Chromatigraphy with Suressed Conductivity Detector and UV Detector

Determination of several cationic surfactants in cosmetics has been investigated. Reverse phase ion pair chromatography was used to identify and quantitate cationic surfactants. Cationic surfactants analyzed in this experiment were cetylpyridium chloride, stearyltrimetylammonium chloride, bezalkonium chloride, benzyldicethylcetylammonium chloride, and bihenyltrimethyl ammonium chloride. The separation was achieved on a reverse phase coumn with 10mM HCl-acetonitrile eluent. In this condition, the most of cationic surfactants with exception of CPC and CTAC respectively with suppressed conductivity detector and UV detector connected in series. The calibration curves obtained by plotting the peak areas of the cationic surfactants were linear at levels ranging from 0.005 to 0.1% correlation coefficient, r=0.9988. The detection limits were 1 to 5ppm in sample solution. The average recoveries of cationic surfactants added to hair treatment cream and hair rinse in three to five experiments were 96.7 105.2% and relative standard deviations were 1.1-3.8%. The case that there were CPC and CTAC in same solution was also tested. CPC and CTAC which couldn't be separated on reverse phase column were quantitated with suppressed conductivity detector and UV detector connected in series. Recovery of CPC and CTAC were 101.6 and 89.2% respectively. The proposed method was applied to the determination of cationic surfactants in commercial hair treatment cream.