Performance and modelling of retention in microemulsion liquid chromatography

Abstract The capability of liquid chromatography with microemulsions (MEs) as mobile phases was studied for the analysis of four parabens (butylparaben, ethylparaben, methylparaben, and propylparaben) and seven β-adrenoceptor antagonists (acebutolol, atenolol, carteolol, metoprolol, oxprenolol, propranolol, and timolol). MEs were formed by mixing aqueous solutions of the anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulphate, the alcohol 1-butanol that played the role of co-surfactant, and octane as oil. In order to guarantee the formation of stable MEs, a preliminary study was carried out to determine the appropriate ranges of concentrations of the three components. For this purpose, mixtures of varia…