Trace analysis of triasulfuron and bensulfuron-methyl in water samples using a carbon nanotubes packed cartridge in combination with high-performance liquid chromatography

This paper describes a simple, rapid and sensitive method for the determination of triasulfuron and bensulfuron-methyl using a multi-walled carbon nanotube-packed cartridge as the preconcentration step prior to analysis by high-performance liquid chromatography. The experimental results indicate an excellent linear correlation between the peak area and the concentration for triasulfuron and bensulfuron-methyl over the concentration range of 0.08–80 and 0.04–40 ng · mL⁻¹, and the correlation coefficients are 99.93 and 99.38%, respectively. The detection limits are 22.4 and 2.9 ng · L⁻¹ based on the signal being three times the baseline noise (S/N = 3). The precision of the method is satisfactory at a very low level, and the relative standard deviations (RSD) are 2.6 and 4.8% (n = 6), respectively. Satisfactory recoveries were achieved with spiked real water samples, inferring that the established method can be applied to real sample analysis.