Abstract

A simple pre-column derivatization method using (2,4-Dinitrophenylhydrazine, DNPH) as pre-column labeling reagent followed by ultra performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) with a Photo-Diode Array detector (PDA) has been developed for the determination of six aldehydes: glyoxal, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, propionaldehyde, butyraldehyde, glutaraldehyde in leather samples. Acetonitrile and 0.1% sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate aqueous solution (1:1, V/V) was used for the ultrasonic extraction at 40°C. A derivatizing parameter – temperature was investigated in detail. Under optimal conditions, the quantification limits were obtained for the desired compounds ranging from 25 to 45μg l-1. The recoveries were higher than 90.6%. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of the target compounds in leather samples with a higher sensitivity than traditional high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and UV – visible scenery spectrophotometry (UV-Vis) methods.