Dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction of pesticides and metabolites from soils using 1,3‐dipentylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate ionic liquid as an alternative extraction solvent

Abstract

In this work, the use of the ionic liquid (IL) 1,3-dipentylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate ([PPIm][PF₆]) as an alternative extractant for IL dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (IL-DLLME) of a group of pesticides and metabolites (2-aminobenzimidazole, carbendazim/benomyl, thiabendazole, fuberidazole, carbaryl, 1-naphthol, and triazophos) from soils is described. After performing an initial ultrasound-assisted extraction (USE), the IL-DLLME procedure was applied for the extraction of these organic analytes from soil extracts. Separation and quantification was achieved by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with fluorescence detection (FD). Calibration, precision, and accuracy of the described USE-IL-DLLME-HPLC-FD method using [PPIm][PF₆] as an alternative extractant was evaluated with two soils of different physicochemical properties. Accuracy percentages were in the range 93-118% with RSD values below 20%. A comparison of the performance of [PPIm][PF₆] versus that of the so-common 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate ([HMIm][PF₆]) was accomplished. Results indicate a comparable extraction efficiency with both ILs, being slightly higher with [HMIm][PF₆] for the metabolite 2-aminobenzimidazole, and slightly higher with [PPIm][PF₆] for triazophos. In all cases, LODs were in the low ng/g range (0.02-14.2 ng/g for [HMIm][PF₆] and 0.02-60.5 ng/g for [PPIm][PF₆]). As a result, the current work constitutes a starting point for the use of the IL [PPIm][PF₆] for further analytical approaches.