Determination of six amide herbicide residues in soil by QuEChERS-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

Abstract

A method was developed for the determination of six amide herbicides, such as acetochlor, alachlor, metolachlor, metazachlor, butachlor and pretilachlor, by QuEChERS-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The soil samples were extracted by 10 mL acetonitrile, 10 mL deionized water and 4 g sodium chloride, then purified with 50 mg N-propyl ethylenediamine (PSA), 50 mg C18, 10 mg graphitized carbon black (GCB) and 100 mg MgSO4. Low-polar silica capillary column HP-5MS was used. The extracts were detected by electron impact ionization (EI) source in the selected ion monitoring (SIM) mode. The results showed that good linearities were obtained with the mass concentrations of the six amide herbicides in the range of 0.01-1.00 mg/L, and their correlation coefficients ranged from 0.9996 to 1.0000. Under the condition of adding contents of 0.025, 0.10 and 0.50 mg/kg, the average recoveries of the six amide herbicides ranged from 92.0% to 108%, and the relative standard deviations were 1.64%-8.25%. The limits of detection (LODs) were 0.002-0.006 mg/kg and the limits of quantification (LOQs) were 0.005-0.02 mg/kg. Comparing with the gas chromatography-electron capture detection (GC-ECD) which used to detect the amide herbicides, this method can improve the anti-interference ability, and get better separation of the six amide herbicides. The method has the advantages of simplicity, rapidity, and application value.