Determination of anionic and amphoteric surfactants using LC/MS

Until recently, complicated techniques, such as the need for several pretre atments, have been required for the successful analysis of surfactants in m ixtures. In particular, it has been found that the determination of an indi vidual surfactant in a mixture of anion and amphoteric surfactants is very difficult. To address this problem, we established a new and simplified ana lytical method for mixtures of anion and amphoteric surfactants using liqui d chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS). This method does not requir a t edious pretreatment, and makes it possible to determine anionic and amphote ric surfactants individually in mixtures. It was confirmed that this method is applicable for the determination of anionic and amphoteric surfactants individually in several shampoos.