Determination of furanic aldehydes in sugarcane bagasse by high-performance liquid chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection using a modified electrode with nickel nanoparticles.

A glassy carbon electrode chemically modified with nickel nanoparticles coupled with reversed-phase chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection was used for the quantitative analysis of furanic aldehydes in a real sample of sugarcane bagasse hydrolysate. Chromatographic separation was carried out in isocratic conditions (acetonitrile/water, 1:9) with a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min, a detection potential of -50 mV vs. Pd, and the process was completed within 4 min. The analytical curves presented limits of detection of 4.0 × 10-7 mol/L and 4.3 × 10-7 mol/L, limits of quantification of 1.3 × 10-6 and 1.4 × 10-6 mol/L, amperometric sensitivities of 2.2 × 106 nA mol/L and 2.7 × 106 nA mol/L for furfural and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural, respectively. The values obtained in this sample by the standard addition method were 1.54 ± 0.02 g/kg for 5-hydroxymethylfurfural and 11.5 ± 0.2 g/kg for furfural. The results demonstrate that this new proposed method can be used for the quick detection of furanic aldehydes without the interference of other electroactive species, besides having other remarkable merits that include excellent peak resolution, analytical repeatability, sensitivity, and accuracy.