Sequential injection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy for the simultaneous determination of organic acids and sugars in soft drinks employing automated solid phase extraction Original Research Article

A fully automated method for the rapid determination of organic acids (citric-, malic- and tartaric acid) and sugars (glucose, fructose, and sucrose) in soft drinks by sequential injection Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy is presented. A convective interaction media (CIM) disc carrying quaternary amino moieties was added as a solid phase extraction column to the flow system. Upon injection of a sample the organic acids were completely retained on the CIM disc whereas sugars passed to the flow cell. The organic acids were subsequently eluted by injection of an alkaline (pH 8.5) 1 M sodium chloride solution and recorded in their fully deprotonated form as a second flow injection peak. In both cases, the FTIR spectra corresponding to the peak maxima were selected for data evaluation. Two partial least squares models, one for sugars and the other for organic acids, were constructed based on the analysis of standards containing all six analytes. The developed method was applied to natural samples yielding results which were in good agreement with those obtained by an external reference method (enzymatic test kits). Deviations in the results were 3.4. and 4.1% for citric and malic acid and ranged from 4.7–5.1% for the sugars. The developed method is characterized by its short analysis time, experimental simplicity and its potential applications in routine analysis and process control.