Determination of ethanol in alcoholic beverages by high-performance liquid chromatography-flame ionization detection using pure water as mobile phase.

A method for the determination of ethanol in alcoholic beverages by high-performance liquid chromatography-flame ionization detection (HPLC-FID) was developed. An FID system could be directly connected to an HPLC system using pure water as a mobile phase. In a durability test using triacontylsilyl (C30)-silica gel stationary phase for 96 h, no significant change in the retention time of four alcohol compounds was observed. So the HPLC separation of alcoholic beverages was carried out on the C30-silica gel stationary phase. On application to the analysis of six kinds of alcoholic beverages, ethanol could be determined accurately by the proposed method.