This document specifies a method for determining alkylphenols (nonylphenol and octylphenol) and alkylphenol ethoxylates (nonylphenol ethoxylate and octylphenol ethoxylate) in leather and process auxiliaries. The analysis is based on high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) or gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS).

The analysis of the alkylphenol ethoxylate is made by cleaving the alkylphenol ethoxylate and measuring the released alkylphenol.

NOTE ISO 18218-1 and this document use different solvents for the extraction of the ethoxylated alkylphenols from leather. Consequently, the two analytical methods are expected to give similar trends but not necessarily the same absolute result for the ethoxylated alkylphenol content in leather.