[Separation and determination of metsulfuron, bensulfuron, acetochlor by high performance liquid chromatography]

In this paper a high performance liquid chromatographic method for the separation and determination of metsulfuron, bensulfuron and acetochlor in the composite herbicide "Nongjiayi" is described. The concentration of methanol in the mobile phase and the temperature of the column affected the k' factor and the separation of the three active ingredients. Impurities in the "Nongjiayi" did not interfere with the determination. Chromatographic conditions were Shim-Pack CLC-C8 (150 mm x 6 mm i.d., 5 microm), mobile phase of methanol-water (60:40, V/V) and UV detector at 240 nm. Quantification was carried out with the three external standards. The average recovery was 98.81% with RSD=0.80% for metsulfuron, 99.10% with RSD=0.78% for bensulfuron and 99.72% with RSD=0.69% for acetochlor. The linear range of this method was 0.10-0.40 microg (r=0.9994) for metsulfuron, 0.40-1.60 microg (r=0.9995) for bensulfuron and 10-40 microg (r=0.9987) for acetochlor. The method is accurate, rapid and reproducible and can be applied to quality control for the "Nongjiayi".