APPLICATION OF CENTRAL COMPOSITE DESIGN FOR THE DETERMINATION OF EXFOLIATING AGENTS IN COSMETICS BY CAPILLARY ELECTROPHORESIS WITH ELECTROOSMOTIC FLOW MODULATION

Multivariate analysis within central composite design is applied to simplify an optimization procedure and explore the interactions among experimental parameters in analytical chemistry. In this study, central composite design was used to identify the optimal capillary electrophoresis conditions with electroosmotic flow modulation to determine seven exfoliating agents in cosmetics. The influence of phosphate concentration, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide concentration, and methanol percentage on the response was evaluated by the use of the chromatographic exponential function to simultaneously investigate the resolution and separation under sixteen sets of capillary electrophoresis conditions. The optimized conditions were 150mM phosphate solution (pH = 7) containing 0.5mM cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, 3mM gamma-cyclodextrin, and 25% methanol as the running buffer. To shorten the analysis time, an electroosmotic flow modulating agent (cetyltrimethylammonium bromide) was added to the separation buffer. Calibration plots were linear (r >= 0.998) with high precision and accuracy in the homemade cosmetic matrix. The exfoliating agents in two commercial cosmetic products were determined using the optimized conditions, and the results correlated well with results obtained by high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry.