[Determination of imidaclothiz in tea by QuEChERS cleanup and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry]

The method for the determination of imidaclothiz residue in tea by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) has been developed. The imidaclothiz in tea was extracted by acetonitrile and purified by QuEChERS with PSA (primary secondary amine), C18, GCB (graphitized carbon black) as the adsorbents. The purified solution was centrifuged and the supernatant was diluted with water of equal volume. The separation was performed on a C18 column with a gradient elution program of acetonitrile (containing 0.1% (v/v) formic acid) and water at a flow rate of 0.30 mL/min. The mass spectrometer was carried out with electrospray ion source in the positive mode (ESI+) and selective reaction monitoring (SRM), quantified by external standard solution. The results showed that the mass concentration of imidaclothiz in the range of 1 to 500 μg/L was linearly correlated with the peak area, and the correlation coefficient (r) was 0.999 9. The limit of quantification (LOQ, S/N ≥ 10) was 0.01 mg/kg. The recoveries in oolong tea and green tea at three spiked levels (0.01, 0.3 and 3 mg/kg) varied from 87.0%-101.0% and the relative standard deviations (RSDs, n = 7) were between 2.1% and 13.1%. The real sample tests showed that the method is simple, cheap, accurate, specific, rapid, and suitable for the qualitative and quantitative confirmation of imidaclothiz residue in tea.