Fast and reliable analytical method based on ion chromatography with amperometric detection applied to the sugar cane quality control.

FPP11 Fast and Reliable Analytical Method Based on Ion Chromatography with Amperometric Detection Applied to the Sugar Cane Quality Control.
L.B. Ferronato(1,2), L. Zanuni(1), V.C. Bassetto*(2), J.T.C. Barragan(1,2), W.T. Garcia(3), C. Caldas(4), L.T. Kubota(2)
1 – Metrohm Pensalab – R. Minerva 167 - CEP 05007-030 – São Paulo – Brazil 2 – Institute of Chemistry – Unicamp – R. Josué de Castro s/n CEP 13083-970 P.O. Box 6154 – Campinas – Brazil 3 – Centro de Tecnologia Canavieira – Fazenda Santo Antônio CEP 13400-970 – Piracicaba – Brazil. 4 – Central Analítica – Máceio – Brazil. [e-mail] Keywords: ion chromatography, sugarcane juice, fast method

Abstract
The present work aims to fill a gap in sugarcane analyses in the matter of fast and reliable ion chromatography method for quantification of carbohydrates of industrial interest in the sugar cane juice before processing. The main goal is the development of a method for the quantification of sucrose, fructose, glucose and maltose by ion chromatography with amperometric detection, which has to be fast (around five minutes) enough, reliable and robust in order to attend all the chain of sugar and alcohol production. The study was performed by evaluating several different chromatographic parameters, such as eluent strength and flow rate in order to reduce the total analysis time. From the standard condition to optimised conditions, 16 possibilities were stated and eight were considered as the most important and tested. The parameters involved in the tests were: flow rate varying from 0.25 mL/min up to 1.0 mL/min and the concentration of eluent from 0.1 M up to 0.4 M. The obtained results indicated a good correlation between the proposed method and the requirements established as final goals being able to add on, polarimetric, and titrimetric analyses. In the present study, the time for a single analysis of sugarcane extract was reduced from 18.5 minutes in standard condition to five minutes for