Determination of organophosphorus, triazine and 2,6-dinitroaniline pesticides in aqueous samples via solid-phase microextraction (SPME) and gas chromatography with nitrogen-phosphorus detection

Abstract

Solid-phase microextraction (SPME) represents a very simple and rapid method for the extraction of organophosphorus, triazine and 2,6-dinitroaniline pesticides from aqueous samples without making use of any solvents. The same fiber can be used repeatedly. Moreover, a sample volume as small as 3 mL can be employed with no loss in sensitivity. 34 compounds have been extracted from aqueous samples by SPME using a 85 μm polyacrylate fiber. For organophosphorus pesticides, a 100 μm polydimethylsiloxane fiber has been used additionally for comparison. The fibers were directly introduced into the heated split/splitless injector of the gas chromatograph and determined using a nitrogen-phosphorus detector. The method was evaluated with respect to the limit of detection (LOD), linearity and precision. The limit of detection (LOD) depends on the compound and varies from 0.005–0.09 μg/L. The method is linear over at least three orders of magnitude with coefficients of correlation usually >0.999. For triazines and 2,6-dinitroanilines the coefficient of variation (precision) is <8% while for organophosphorus compounds it may reach values up to 18% (however, if the latter compounds are extracted using the polydimethylsiloxane phase considerably higher precision is achieved). The partitioning of the analyte between the aqueous phase and the polymeric phase depends on the hydrophobicity of the compound as expressed by the octanol/water partitioning coefficient (Pow). For triazines it was shown that there is a linear dependence of the logarithm of the analyte response on the log(Pow) i.e. the higher the hydrophobicity, the higher the affinity of the analytes to the polymeric phase of the fiber and the higher the response. Salt addition has a strong effect on the extraction efficiency. This effect increases with decreasing hydrophobicity (increasing polarity) of the compound. The triazines ametryn, atrazine, propazine, simazine and simetryn have been identified in a ground water well sample by SPMEGC/NPD.