Determination of vanillin in vanilla perfumes and air by capillary electrophoresis.

The present study investigated capillary electrophoretic detection of vanillin in vanilla perfume and air. An UV-absorbance detector was used in a home-made capillary electrophoretic instrument. A fused silica capillary (outer diameter: 364 μm, inner diameter: 50 μm) was used as a separation capillary, and a high electric voltage (20 kV) was applied across the two ends of the capillary. Total length of the capillary was 70 cm, and the effective length was 55 cm. Experimental results showed that the vanillin peak was detected at about 600, 450, and 500 seconds when pH of running buffers in CE were 7.2, 9.3, and 11.5, respectively. The peak area of vanillin was proportional to its concentration in the range of 0-10(-2) mol/L. The detection limit was about 10(-5) mol/L. Vanillin concentration in a 1% vanilla perfume sample was determined to be about 3×10(-4) mol/L, agreed well with that obtained by a HPLC method. Furthermore, determination of vanillin in air by combination of CE and active carbon adsorption method was investigated.