The separation of fifty pesticides and related compounds and polychlorobiphenyls into four groups by silica gel microcolumn chromatography

Abstract

An analytical scheme used in the study of the pollution of surface water by pesticides in Italy is described, and the separation of pesticides and polychlorobiphenyls into four groups by chromatography on a silica gel microcolumn is explained in detail. The advantages of the more accurate gas-chromatographic identification of pesticides present in the fractions eluted from silica gel are shown. Several organophosphorus pesticides were also identified in the waters by the technique described, the persistence of which in the environment had not previously been suspected.