Isolation and recovery of 2-aminoethanol, N-methyl-2-aminoethanol, and N,N-dimethyl-2-aminoethanol from a copper amine aqueous matrix and from amine-treated sawdust using liquid-liquid extraction and liquid-solid extraction combined with capillary gas chromatography-ion-trap mass spectrometry.

An analytical method for the rapid isolation and recovery of the homologous series of 2-aminoethanols, a class of organic compounds of importance to wood preservative treatment, is successfully developed. The method is applied to an aqueous solution of copper amine (copper[II] hydroxide complexed monoethanolamine) and to copper-amine-treated sawdust. The method incorporates a gas chromatograph-ion-trap mass spectrometer. A discussion of the secondary equilibrium effects involved when ionizable analytes are extracted from an aqueous phase with respect to organic bases is presented. Using 2-propanol as the extractant coupled to a salt-saturated aqueous phase results in recoveries of 63% for 2-aminoethanol, 51% for N,N-dimethyl-2-aminoethanol, and 56% for N-methyl-2-aminoethanol for a single liquid-liquid extraction. The choice of 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol as an internal standard is found to be quite suitable. A comparison of the precision and accuracy for an external versus an internal mode of instrument calibration demonstrates that the internal standard mode is preferable for this manual injection.