Soil thin-layer chromatography and pesticide mobility through soil microstructures. New technical approach

Soil thin-layer chromatography with water or water-methanol as solvents allows observation and measurement of the mobility of labelled pesticides through soil microstructures. Eleven different sieved matrices were studied: pure humine, pure clays, schists and soils. Ionized compounds (paraquat, glyphosate) were tightly bound to these matrices. The other compounds, lipophilic and generally non-ionized ones, migrated in the same order on most of the studied matrices, either mineral or organic: R(F) atrazine=isoproturon>diuron=fipronil>phenmedipham. This order was roughly correlated to log P but much more complex correlations were suggested. The rate of water movement, VWR, widely changed from one matrix to another. Therefore, the pesticide movement, M, in soil microstructures under the action of rain may be described by the equation M = WR R(F).