Evaluation of comprehensive on-line liquid chromatography thermally assisted hydrolysis and methylation-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry for characterization of sulfonated lignins.

Sulfonated lignins, used as dispersants in agrochemical formulations, have been characterized by hyphenation of ion-pair RPLC and thermally assisted hydrolysis and methylation-GC-MC (THM-GC-MS). The chemical structure of a series of selected lignins was evaluated, both in terms of overall composition and in terms of composition as a function of molecular size. Some sulfonated lignins give rise to unstable formulations.

Comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography: ion chromatography × reversed-phase liquid chromatography for separation of low-molar-mass organic acids.

In the work presented here a novel approach to comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography is evaluated. Ion chromatography is chosen for the first-dimension separation and reversed-phase liquid chromatography is chosen for the second-dimension separation mode. The coupling of these modes is made possible by neutralising the first-dimension effluent, containing KOH, prior to transfer to the second-dimension reversed-phase column.

Analytical methodology for sulfonated lignins.

There is a significant need to characterize and classify lignins and sulfonated lignins. Lignins have so far received a good deal of attention, whereas this is not true for sulfonated lignins. There is a clear demand for a better understanding of sulfonated lignins on a chemical as well as physical level.

Fully automated system for the gas chromatographic characterization of polar biopolymers based on thermally assisted hydrolysis and methylation.

Pyrolysis-gas chromatography (Py-GC) is a powerful tool for the detailed compositional analysis of polymers. A major problem of Py-GC is that polar (bio)polymers yield polar pyrolyzates which are not easily accessible to further GC characterization. In the present work, a newly developed fully automated procedure for thermally assisted hydrolysis and methylation (THM) of biopolymers is described.

One-dimensional and two-dimensional liquid chromatography of sulphonated lignins.

One- and two-dimensional separation methods have been developed for the analysis of lignosulphonates and sulphonated kraft lignins. The evaluated sulphonated lignins are all used as dispersants in agrochemical formulations, where some give rise to physical instabilities of formulations. It is of interest to identify the properties of the sulphonated lignins that determine the formulation characteristics.

Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) for determination of metalworking fluid aerosols.

A common methodology for analyzing metalworking fluid (MWF) aerosols in workplace air is based on gravimetry before and after organic solvent extraction of the MWFs from a suitable collection filter. Because MWFs have different chemical and physical properties, various mixtures of organic solvents have been used to extract the MWFs from their collection device. An alternative to organic solvents, used in the work presented in this article, is the use of a supercritical fluid.