DETERMINATION BY HIGH-PERFORMANCE CAPILLARY ELECTROPHORESIS OF ALKYLAROMATICS USED AS BASES OF SULFONATION IN THE PREPARATION OF INDUSTRIALSURFACTANTS

Having previously attempted to determine by high-performance capillary electrophoresis (HPCE) industrial surfactants resulting from the sulf onation of oil fractions (WITCO TRS 10-80), it was decided, because of the complexity of these fractions and of the low resolution obtained, to undertake the analysis by HPCE of mixtures of alkylaromatics used as bases to prepare these compounds. Using a model mixture of alkylben zenes, including benzene and a series of homologous compounds with alk yl chain lengths of C-1-C-16, the conditions of the separation were op timized. It was shown that it is possible to analyse this mixture, wit h total baseline resolution, in 35 min using simultaneously sodium dod ecyl sulfate and an organic co-solvent at high concentrations. These c onditions also allow the resolution not only of the alkylated compound s used as the bases for the preparation of industrial alkylbenzenesulf onates (Sulframine ACB and Sulfo TPB) but also the surfactants themsel ves. It must also be noted that these conditions, transposed to WITCO TRS 10-80, allow for the first time the resolution of this complex mix ture.