Determination of triazines and N-methylcarbamate pesticides in water by high-performance liquid chromatography-diode array detection

Abstract

A rapid and selective method for the simultaneous determination of triazine herbicides (atrazine, its degradation product desethylatrazine, simazine, prometryn, terbutryn) and N -methylcarbamate insecticides (propoxur, carbaryl and methiocarb) in surface water has been developed. A 0.5 L of the water sample was preconcentrated by passage through a 1 g C-18 solid-phase extraction cartridge. The retained compounds were eluted with 5 mL of methanol from the cartridge. The pesticides were separated and quantified by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with UV diode-array detection. Analytical separation was performed using a concave gradient elution with acetonitrile and water on a C-18 column. Prometryn and terbutryn were determined at 240 nm; propoxur, methiocarb at 204 nm and the others at 220 nm. Recoveries varied from 85 to 102% over concentrations at 0.025 and 0.2 mug L-1. The limits of detection for the compounds investigated are in the range of 0.005-0.012 mug L-1.