6-Methoxy-2-methylsulfonylquinoline-4-carbonyl chloride as a fluorescence derivatization reagent for amines in liquid chromatography

Abstract

6-Methoxy-2-methylsulfonylquinoline-4-carbonyl chloride was found to be a sensitive fluorescence derivatization reagent for primary amines. The reagent reacted with the amines in acetonitrile in the presence of potassium carbonate to give the corresponding fluorescent amides, which could be separated on a TSK_gel ODS-80TM reversed-phase column with aqueous 55% v/v acetonitrile as eluent. Pentylamine, hexylamine, heptylamine and octylamine were used to investigate the derivatization conditions. The detection limits (signal-to-noise ratio = 3) of these amines were in the range 0.5–1.0 pmol per 20 µl injection volume. Alcohols did not give any fluorescent products under these derivatization conditions.