Determination of anionic and amphoteric surfactants using LC/MS

Until recently, complicated techniques, such as the need for several pretreatments, have been required for the successful analysis of surfactants in mixtures. In particular, it has been found that the determination of an individual surfactant in a mixture of anion and amphoteric surfactants is very difficult. To address this problem, we established a new and simplified analytical method for mixtures of anion and amphoteric surfactants using liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS). This method does not requir a tedious pretreatment, and makes it possible to determine anionic and amphoteric surfactants individually in mixtures. It was confirmed that this method is applicable for the determination of anionic and amphoteric surfactants individually in several shampoos.