Separation and determination of acrylamide in potato chips by micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography

A simple and rapid method using micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography (MEKC) was developed for the separation and determination of acrylamide in potato chips at low levels for the first time. The experimental conditions for the separation and quantification of acrylamide were optimized at first. The optimized conditions were: 50mmol/L Na(2)B(4)O(7) and 40mmol/L SDS at pH 10.0, 12kV applied voltage, 76cm total length (67cm effective length) and 75mum i.d. capillary, 198nm wavelength, 15cm high 25s hydrodynamics sample injection, 20 degrees C air-cooling. The linear response of acrylamide concentration ranges from 0.5 to 100mug/mL with high correlation coefficient (r=0.9986, n=9). The LOD and LOQ were estimated to be 0.1 and 0.33mug/mL based on S/N=3 and 10. The precision values (expressed as R.S.D.) of intra- and inter-day were 0.86-4.35% and 2.61-9.65%, respectively. Recoveries spiked at levels 2, 20, 60mug/mL ranged between 90.86% and 99.6% with R.S.D. less than 6.5%. Finally, the developed method has been applied to the analysis of real samples and has achieved satisfactory results. All of these indicated that it was a reliable method for the quantification of acrylamide in potato chips.