Determination of Bisphenols A and F in Noncured Epoxy Resins by RP-HPLC--Fluorescence Techniques

Abstract

We propose a reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic method using fluorescence detection for the determination of residual levels of bisphenols A and F in noncured epoxy resins prepared under various conditions. This method optimizes the conditions of synthesis of bisphenol diglycidyl ether epoxy resins so that migration of these monomers from materials that will come into contact with foodstuffs falls within legal limits. The method is sensitive, as proven by the high slopes of the calibration lines; it is also free from interferences because the intercepts of the calibration lines are not significantly different than zero (α = 0.05, degrees of freedom= 6). The results are linear over a wide range of concentrations covering two orders of magnitude (from 10 to 1,000 ppb). Detection limits are about 4 ppb for bisphenol F and 6 ppb for bisphenol A. Precision along the calibration lines is revealed by the error index percentages (lower than 3.5) and determination coefficients (better than 0.997).