Activated aluminum oxide selectively retaining long chain n-alkanes: Part II. Integration into an on-line high performance liquid chromatography-liquid chromatography-gas chromatography-flame ionization detection method to remove plant paraffins for the determination of mineral paraffins in foods and environmental samples

Aluminum oxide activated by heating to 300–400 ◦C retains n-alkanes with more than about 20 carbon atoms, whereas iso-alkanes largely pass non-retained (with characteristics described in more detail in Part I). This property is useful for the analysis of mineral oil contamination of foods and other matrices: it enables the removal of plant n-alkanes, typically ranging from C23 to C33, when they disturb the analysis of mineral paraffins (usually almost exclusively consisting of iso-alkanes). An on-line HPLC–LC–GC–FID method is proposed in which a first silica gel HPLC column isolates the paraffins from the bulk of edible oils or extracts and is backflushed with dichloromethane. In a second separation step, a 10 cm×2mmi.d. column packed with activated aluminum oxide separates the long chain n-alkanes fromthe fraction of the iso-alkanes which is transferred to GC–FID by the on-column interface and the retention gap technique. The retained n-alkanes are removed by flushing with iso-octane.