This study shows the advantages of immersive sorptive extraction using HiSorb™ probes for GC–MS analysis of a wide range of compounds in a fragranced shampoo sample. Key benefits include: direct extraction from the liquid phase by robust immersion of the probes, fully automated extraction and enrichment (including probe washing and drying on the Centri® multi-mode platform), ‘prep-ahead’ sample extraction functionality and high sensitivity to target analytes, particularly those at lower levels compared to the principal components.
Introduction
For bathing products such as shampoo, fragrance is a major aspect of the user experience and influences a consumer’s buying decision. A wide range of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) contribute to the fragrance profile of shampoo. Characterisation of these compounds is a vital part of product development, formulation and routine quality monitoring, where the relative levels of key olfactory constituents are screened to ensure consistency is achieved, particularly for batch-to-batch production.
In this study, we demonstrate the use of HiSorb, a highcapacity sorptive extraction technique using HiSorb probes (Figure 1) for sampling of key fragrance compounds in a shampoo sample. HiSorb is compatible with both headspace and immersive extraction of VOCs in liquid samples, using standard 10- or 20-mL vials. The strength of the metal probes compared to delicate SPME fibers enables a more robust immersive extraction technique. The probes support a large volume of sorptive phase (~65 µL) to enhance the extraction efficiency relative to traditional solid-phase microextraction (SPME) methods where the SPME fibers contain approximately 0.5 µL of phase. The availability of more sorptive phase enables better extraction of trace-level compounds, facilitating much lower levels of detection in subsequent GC–MS analyses – typically >100x enhancement in sensitivity. Thus, high-capacity sorptive extraction is ideally suited to the measurement and identification of key olfactory components that may have a significant impact on consumer perception of fragrance even when present at low levels. Semi-volatile higher-molecular-weight compounds, which do not readily partition into the headspace due to their low volatility, are more efficiently extracted by immersion of the sorptive phase into the liquid sample, improving the discovery and identification of these sample constituents.
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