Specific Determination of Ethylene Oxide and Ethylene Chlorohydrin in Cosmetics and Polyoxyethylated Surfactants by Gas Chromatography with Electron Capture Detection

Abstract

Abstract A simple specific determination method was developed for ethylene oxide (EO) and ethylene chlorohydrin (ECH) in cosmetics and surfactants. EO is desorbed from samples by using a nitrogen stream and absorbed into acidic potassium iodide solution, where it is converted to ethylene iodohydrin (EIH). Any remaining ECH in the samples is converted to EO by the addition of sodium hydroxide, and the desorption procedure is repeated with a fresh acidic potassium iodide absorbing solution. EIH is extracted with benzene and determined by gas chromatography with electron capture detection. EO and ECH contents in the samples are calculated from EIH results. Recoveries from water and shampoo samples were 70.3 ± 5.4 and 58.9 ± 1.2%, respectively, for EO and 66.3 ± 4.0 and 64.5 ± 4.6%, respectively, for ECH. Detection limits in 0.2-2.0 g samples were in the 0.005-0.03 μg/g range for EO and 0.01-0.07 μg/g for ECH. High levels of EO (30-394 μg/g as ECH) were found in 5 of 18 polyoxyethylated surfactant samples, but only small amounts (0.07-4.0 μg/g) of ECH were detected in the samples. EO was not detected in cosmetic samples tested, but ECH was present in small quantities (≤1.11 μg/g).