Ethylene Chlorohydrin and Ethylene Glycol Analysis and Testing

Ethylene Chlorohydrin and Ethylene Glycol

Ethylene chlorohydrin (ECH, 2-chloroethanol) and ethylene glycol (EG) are residual contaminants from sterilization using ethylene oxide. Both compounds are water soluble, and EG is highly polar. Because of these properties, the analysis of EG in particular can be compromised by

matrix effects and chromatographic conditions. By using isotope dilution analysis, some of these errors can be minimized. We use ECH-d₄ and EG-d₄ spiked into the samples as internal standards (isotope dilution) coupled with GCMS to achieve the best data. In this way errors from matrix effects and chromatography should be the same for the labeled and unlabeled analogues.

Above is a GCMS chromatogram for the compounds and their deuterium labeled analogues. While the ECH analogues are not separated, the EG analogues show some separation. The unique mass spectral ions are used to quantitate each component. The mass spectrum of the ECH peak shows the quantitation ions for ECH (33) and ECH-d₄ (36).

We have validated this method as well as methods for ethylene oxide (EO) by both GC and GCMS. Detection limits using GCMS for ECH are approximately 1 ug/mL in a water solution, while for EG detection limits are approximately 3 ug/mL.

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