Reaffirmed 2023

NATIONAL FOREWORD

This Indian Standard (Part 1) which is identical with ISO 17293-1 : 2014 ‘Surface active agents — Determination of chloroacetic acid (chloroacetate) in surfactants — Part 1: HPLC method’ issued by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) was adopted by the Bureau of Indian Standards on recommendation of the Soaps and Other Surface Active Agents Sectional Committee and approval of the Chemical Division Council.

Chloroacetic acid is used in production of alkyl ethoxy carboxylate surfactant compounds which is one of the component of laundry detergents. Since chloroacetic acid is hazardous compound, its absence must be ensured in detergents. While adopting ISO standards on different test methods, it is observed that there is no Indian standard on determination of chloroacetic acid in surfactants. Considering the importance of test method for determination of chloroacetic acid in surfactants and to follow the uniform practices globally, the Committee felt that it would be more convenient to prepare this standard method by adoption of ISO 17293-1 on dual number basis.

This method is high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method which is a technique to separate, identify and quantify each component in a mixture that has superior resolving power (the ability to distinguish between compounds), when separating mixtures. HPLC is distinguished from traditional liquid chromatography because operational pressures are significantly higher, while ordinary liquid chromatography typically relies on the force of gravity to pass the mobile phase through the column.

Besides adopting ISO 17293-1, the committee decided to adopt ISO 17293-2 also which is Ionic chromatographic method for determination of chloroacetic acid on dual number basis in order to maintain the complete set of standards on determination of chloroacetic acid (chloroacetate) in surfactants.

This Indian Standard is published in two parts. The other part in this series is:

Part 2 Ionic chromatographic method

The text of ISO Standard has been approved as suitable for publication as an Indian Standard without deviations. Certain terminologies and conventions are, however, not identical to those used in Indian Standards. Attention is particularly drawn to the following:

a) Wherever the words ‘International Standard’ appear referring to this standard, they should be read as ‘Indian Standard’.

b) Comma (,) has been used as a decimal marker, while in Indian Standards, the current practice is to use a point (.) as the decimal marker.