Synthesis and high performance liquid chromatographic analysis of butoxylation byproducts

In this article, a standard sample of 1,2-epoxybutane autopolymerization by-product (PBG) with different molecular weights was synthesized using 1,2-butanediol as an initiator; after that, the standard sample was purified by molecular distillation and other purification methods, and detected by ELSD 6000 evaporative light scattering detector on the basis of optimized chromatographic conditions on an Agilent ZORBAX SB-C18 column; methanol: triethylamine aqueous solution aqueous solution (9 : 1, volume ratio) was used as the mobile phase with gradient elution, and the optimal flow rate was 0.8 mL/min, and the column temperature was 25 °C. The final results showed that the logarithmic relationship of the mass concentration of PBG-800 with the chromatographic peak area was good with a R2 of 0.9998. The average recovery of PBG-800 spiked was 91.75–98% with a relative standard deviation of 1.58–3.03% (n = 9); calculated method detection limit: CL = 0.0022 g/L; method limit of quantification: QL = 0.0077 g/L. The standard reserve solution was stable within 3 months, and the results were consistent with multiple test comparisons. This HPLC analytical method can realize the determination of the content of by-products in the butoxylation reaction of epoxybutane during the production of nonionic surfactants.