Simultaneous determination of aspartame, cyclamate, saccharin and acesulfame-K in soft drinks and tabletop sweetener formulations by capillary electrophoresis with capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection

Capillary electrophoresis (CE) with capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection (C4D) was used for simple, rapid, and simultaneous determination of aspartame, cyclamate, saccharin and acesulfame-K in commercial samples of soft drinks and tabletop sweetener formulations. A buffer solution containing 100 mmol L−1 tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane (TRIS) and 10 mmol L−1 histidine (His) was used as background electrolyte (BGE). A complete separation of the analytes could be attained in less than 6 min. The limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) were considered better than those usually obtained by CE with photometric detection. Recoveries ranging from 94% to 108% were obtained for samples spiked with standard solutions of the sweeteners. The relative standard deviation (RSD) for the analysis of the samples with the CE-C4D method varied in the range of 1.5%–6.5%.