Monitoring of phenylurea and propanil herbicides in river water by solid-phase-extraction high performance liquid chromatography with photoinduced-fluorimetric detection

The separation and determination of five herbicides, including propanil and the phenylureas diuron, isoproturon, linuron and neburon, has been performed by an HPLC method, using photochemically-induced fluorescence detection. The non-fluorescent herbicides were transformed into fluorescent compounds by post-column photochemical reaction. A 60:40 (v/v) acetonitrile-buffer solution of potassium phosphate dibasic (pH 7, 0.01 M) was used for the chromatographic elution to separate propanil, linuron and neburon. The overlapping of isoproturon and diuron peaks, in the selected conditions, was resolved by changing the initial movil phase composition to 50:50 (v/v) methanol-buffer solution of potassium phosphate dibasic (pH 7, 0.01 M). The procedure was applied with satisfactory results to the analysis of these herbicides in Guadiana river water samples (Badajoz, Spain), allowing the detection of herbicide residues in the order of mug l(-1), by using a solid-phase extraction (SPE) pre-concentration step.