Analysis of triazine in water samples by solid-phase microextraction coupled with high-performance liquid...

Area of Science:

• Analytical Chemistry
• Environmental Science
• Chromatography

Background:

• Triazine herbicides are widely used in agriculture, necessitating reliable methods for their detection in environmental samples.
• Previous methods for triazine analysis often involve complex extraction procedures.
• Solid-phase microextraction (SPME) offers a solvent-minimized approach for sample preparation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and optimize an SPME-HPLC method for the quantitative determination of triazine herbicides.
• To evaluate different SPME fiber coatings for their efficiency in extracting triazines.
• To apply the optimized method for analyzing triazines in real environmental water samples.

Main Methods:

• Evaluation of four SPME fiber coatings: Carbowax/templated resin (CW/TPR), polydimethylsiloxane/divinylbenzene (PDMS/DVB), polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), and polyacrylate (PA).
• Optimization of SPME extraction parameters including fiber type, desorption conditions, extraction time, temperature, pH, and ionic strength.
• High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with SPME for triazine analysis and method validation.

Main Results:

• CW/TPR and PDMS/DVB fibers demonstrated good performance for triazine extraction.
• Optimized method showed good linearity (correlation coefficients > 0.995) over the range of 5-1000 ng/mL for most triazines.
• Relative standard deviations (R.S.D.s) ranged from 2.4% to 8.8%, and method detection limits (MDLs) were in the low ng/mL range.
• The method was successfully applied to determine triazines in lake water samples.

Conclusions:

• SPME coupled with HPLC provides an efficient and sensitive method for triazine determination in environmental water.
• Both CW/TPR and PDMS/DVB fibers are suitable for this application, offering a simple calibration approach.
• The developed method is valuable for monitoring triazine contamination in aquatic environments.