Abstract: An efficient pressurized capillary electrochromatography (pCEC) method was developed for the determination of acrylamide in potato chips. The separation was performed on a reversed-phase EP-100-20/45-3-C18 capillary column (total length 45 cm, effective length 20 cm, diameter 100 μm, ODS packing 3 μm). Moreover, the mobile phase composition, the concentration of phosphate buffer, separation voltage and other experimental conditions were investigated and optimized, respectively. The mobile phase was composed of a mixture of acetonitrile and 15 mmol/L NaH2PO4 (pH 4.7) (15:85, V/V) at a flow rate of 0.04 mL/min. Under the optimal conditions (separation voltage ?2 kV, and UV detection wavelength 202 nm), the analyte was well separated. The linear range was 2.0–32 μg/mL with a correlation coefficient of 0.999 4. The detection limit (LOD) of acrylamide was 0.30 μg/mL (RSN = 3). The average recoveries were 95.3%–108.1%, with a relative standard deviation (RSD) less than 1.48%. The method has been used for the determination of acrylamide in potato chips with good results.

Key words: pressurized capillary electrochromatography (pCEC), potato chips, acrylamide