Characterization of Commercial Polysorbates Using Different Chromatographic Techniques

Abstract

Abstract Polysorbates – which are commercially available under the name Tween – are complex mixtures of different functionalities. Molar mass distribution and chemical composition of various Tween samples (20, 40, 60 and 65) were determined using size exclusion chromatography (SEC) with dual detection. A separation of different functionalities was achieved using liquid chromatography under critical conditions (LCCC) on typical reversed phase columns with methanol – water and acetone – water as mobile phase. The size of the hydrophilic part was determined after microwave-assisted methanolysis, which allowed also the identification of the fatty acids bound to the hydrophilic core.