Separation and analysis of triazine herbcide residues by capillary electrophoresis

Triazines are widely used in agriculture around the world as selective pre‐ and post‐emergence herbicides for the control of broad leaf and grassy weeds. With high toxicity and persistence, triazines can contaminate the environment and crops, so the development of rapid and sensitive methods for the determination of different triazines is necessary. Capillary electrophoresis comprises a group of techniques used to separate chemical mixtures. Analytical separation is based on different electrophoretic mobilities. This review focuses on the analysis of triazine herbicides with different modes of capillary electrophoresis, including capillary zone electrophoresis, micellar electrokinetic capillary electrophoresis, capillary electrochromatography and nonaqueous capillary electrophoresis. Determinations of triazines in various matrices such as surface water, groundwater, vegetables, soil and grains are emphasized. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reanalysis of Chiral Discrimination of Phenoxypropionic Acid Herbicides on a Teicoplanin Phase Using a Bi-Langmuir Approach

Summary The chiral discrimination of phenoxypropionic acid herbicides by reversed-phase chromatography on a teicoplanin phase has been re-examined using the perturbation method to calculate the solute distribution isotherms. The effects of both temperature and the methanol (organic modifier) content of the mobile phase on the chiral discrimination mechanism were well described by the bi-Langmuir model. The method confirmed a change in the mechanism of enantiomer retention at a critical temperature, T^*, and showed that the mechanism was independent of (i) herbicide molecular structure, i.e. the position of the chloro group on the phenol ring, and (ii) the absolute configuration of the carbon atom. Enantioselectivity was enhanced by increasing the mobile phase methanol content. Use of this approach also revealed that secondary sites on the teicoplanin surface were involved in the processes determining both retention and selectivity. It was clearly demonstrated that these secondary sites of low affinity were not affected by the temperature change and were not involved in the chiral recognition mechanism.     

Immunoaffinity-based extraction of phenylurea herbicides using mixed antibodies against isoproturon and chlortoluron

Summary The analysis of several phenylurea herbicides in different waters is described using an immunoaffinity column clean-up and determination by high performance liquid chromatography. The pesticides were selectively retained on a solid phase extraction column containing antibodies to chlortoluron and to isoproturon immobilised onto silica. Selected phenylureas were eluted using a simple phosphate buffered saline/ethanol mixture at low pH. The immunoaffinity approach gave extracts free of interfering substances and allowed detection limits comparable to those required for pesticides in water in the European Community. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of chlortoluron, isoproturon, linuron and chlorbromuron in tap and river water. Presented at the 21^st ISC held in Stuttgart, Germany, 15^th–20^th September, 1996     

Rapid method for determination of phenylurea herbicides in milk

Summary A method has been developed for the determination of thirteen phenylurea herbicide residues in milk. It involves one-step solvent extraction of the milk with methanol by ultrasonication. The extract is cleaned up on an Amberchrom resin cartridge. Reversed-phase, gradient elution, high-performance liquid chromatography with UV detection at 242 nm is used to analyse the residues. The recovery of thirteen phenylurea pesticides is quantitative, ranging from 71.4% to 97.9% for the individual herbicides investigated at concentrations around 0.05 mg kg^–1 and from 65.1% to 95.6% around 0.005 mg kg^–1. The method is not associated with any of the emulsion problems common to conventional solvent extraction, which considerably reduce the sample clean-up process compared with existing methods.     

Comparison of Different Sorbents for Solid-Phase Extraction of Phenoxyalkanoic Acid Herbicides

An HPLC procedure for determination of phenoxyalkanoic acid herbicides in water samples is proposed. The analytical column Phenomenex C18(2) Luna 5 µm and UV detection at 225 nm were applied. Baseline resolution was achieved in isocratic mode with a mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile/acetic acid (40/60, v/v), adjusted to pH 2.5. SPE sorbents – C₁₈ BondElut, phenyl-silica, LiChrolut SAX and polymeric sorbents – were compared for isolation and preconcentration of 6 phenoxyalkanoic acid herbicides. Higher (above 95%) and more reproducible recoveries were obtained with polymeric and phenyl-silica sorbents using pure methanol for elution. The method was tested for river water samples with the limit of detection in the range of 2–3 µg L⁻¹ (for 50 mL sample) and a reproducibility of 5% RSD.     

An Investigation of Inclusion Complexes of Cyclodextrins with Phenylurea Herbicides by Photochemically-Induced Fluorescence. Analytical Applications

The effect of -cyclodextrin (-CD) and hydroxypropyl--cyclodextrin (HP--CD) upon the photochemically-induced fluorescence (PIF) properties of four phenylurea herbicides, including linuron, diuron, isoproturon and neburon has been studied. Photochemical conversion of these nonfluorescent herbicides into strongly fluorescent photoproducts was shown to occur in -CD and HP--CD aqueous media. The influence of pH, UV irradiation time and photoproduct stability on the fluorescence intensity was also investigated. In addition, the stoichiometry and formation constants of the complexes formed between herbicides and -cyclodextrin (-CD) or 2-hydroxypropyl--cyclodextrin (HP--CD) were determined. The formation constant values, ranging from 184 ± 40 to 1498 ± 245 M^-1, were calculated by applying the iterative nonlinear regression (NLR) approach to the PIF data. Linear calibrations graphs were established in the interval 1–12 g/mL, for diuron, linuron and neburon. The IUPAC limits of detection ranged between 580 and 700 ng/mL, according to the compound. Application to the analysis of phenylurea herbicides in spiked river water was also described.     

Matrix effects and selectivity issues in LC-MS-MS

Summary Chlorobenzenes, triazine and phenylurea herbicides were separated by normal micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) and by micellar electrokinetic chromatography with reversed flow (RF-MEKC) in running buffers containing organic solvents. The relationship between the two techniques is similar to that between reversed-phase and normal-phase HPLC. Using RF-MEKC, the separation of lipophilic compounds is often improved compared to normal MEKC. The migration in MEKC and in RF-MEKC was characterised by lipophilic and polar indices. The experimental values of the lipophilic indices of the compounds tested in the two techniques were close to the indices in reversed-phase HPLC (RP-HPLC). This enables the use of the indices determined in RP-HPLC for predicting the effects of changing composition of the running buffers on migration times in MEKC and in RF-MEKC. Presented at Balaton Symposium '01 on High-Performance Separation Methods, siófok, Hungary, September 2–4, 2001     

Sorption behavior of acidic herbicides on carbon nanotubes

Carbon nanotubes and graphitized carbon are investigated as adsorbents for solid phase extraction of dicamba and 2,4,5-T, two phenoxyalkanoic acid herbicides. These adsorbents have much greater adsorption capability than that of C₁₈ bonded silica, which was also tested for comparison studies. The adsorption capacity increases remarkably at lower pH of the sample solution. Freundlich isotherms were applied to analyze the data. Our studies suggest that carbon nanotubes have great potential applications in environmental analysis.     

Evaluation of new selective molecularly imprinted polymers prepared by precipitation polymerisation for the extraction of phenylurea herbicides

Three different molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) have been prepared by precipitation polymerisation using linuron (LIN) or isoproturon (IPN) (phenylurea herbicides) as templates and methacrylic acid (MAA) or trifluormethacrylic acid (TFMAA) as functional monomers. The ability of the different polymers to selectively rebind not only the template but also other phenylurea herbicides has been evaluated. In parallel, the influence of the different templates and functional monomers used during polymers synthesis on the performance of the obtained MIPs was also studied through different rebinding experiments. The experimental binding isotherms were fitted to the Langmuir-Freundlich isotherm allowing to describe the kind of binding sites present in the imprinted polymers under study. It was concluded that TFMAA-based polymer using IPN as template presents the best properties to be used as a selective sorbent for the extraction of phenylurea herbicides.