Rapid extraction and determination of atrazine and its degradation products from microporous mineral sorbents using microwave-assisted solvent extraction followed by ultra-HPLC-MS/MS

Abstract

We have evaluated three methods for the extraction of atrazine and six of its degradation products from microporous mineral sorbents. Soxhlet extraction and ultrasonic extraction, which work well on soils and sediments, recover only <15 % of the atrazine from a dealuminated Y zeolite. Closed-vessel microwave-assisted extraction, in contrast, gives much better recoveries. This is attributed to the accelerated mass transfer at elevated temperatures and the displacement by the solvent forced into the mineral micropores under elevated pressures. Under the optimized conditions, the recovery of atrazine from the hydrophilic Y zeolites (Si/Al ratios <8) is almost quantitative, and ∼77 % for the more hydrophobic ones. The extraction efficiencies for the degradation products of atrazine in the hydrophilic zeolites (74.1–100 %) are also higher than those in the hydrophobic ones (22.3–44.2 %). The extracted compounds were quantified by a combination of ultra-HPLC and tandem MS and resulted in detection limits between 0.04 and 1.41 mg kg−1 on a hydrophilic Y zeolite (Si/Al = 2.55), and of 0.09–2.35 mg kg−1 on a hydrophobic zeolite (Si/Al = 15). The method was applied to study the degradation of atrazine sorbed on dealuminated Y zeolites.