Residue determination of glyphosate, glufosinate and aminomethylphosphonic acid in water and soil samples by liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray tandem mass spectrometry

This paper describes a method for the sensitive and selective determination of glyphosate, glufosinate and aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA) residues in water and soil samples. The method involves a derivatization step with 9-fluorenylmethylchloroformate (FMOC) in borate buffer and detection based on liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS). In the case of water samples a volume of 10 mL was derivatized and then 4.3 mL of the derivatized mixture was directly injected in an on-line solid phase extraction (SPE)-LC-MS/MS system using an OASIS HLB cartridge column and a Discovery chromatographic column. Soil samples were firstly extracted with potassium hydroxide. After that, the aqueous extract was 10-fold diluted with water and 2 mL were derivatized. Then, 50 microL of the derivatized 10-fold diluted extract were injected into the LC-MS/MS system without pre-concentration into the SPE cartridge. The method has been validated in both ground and surface water by recovery studies with samples spiked at 50 and 500 ng/L, and also in soil samples, spiked at 0.05 and 0.5 mg/kg. In water samples, the mean recovery values ranged from 89 to 106% for glyphosate (RSD <9%), from 97 to 116% for AMPA (RSD < 10%), and from 72 to 88% in the case of glufosinate (RSD < 12%). Regarding soil samples, the mean recovery values ranged from 90 to 92% for glyphosate (RSD <7%), from 88 to 89% for AMPA (RSD <5%) and from 83 to 86% for glufosinate (RSD <6%). Limits of quantification for all the three compounds were 50 ng/L and 0.05 mg/kg in water and soil, respectively, with limits of detection as low as 5 ng/L, in water, and 5 microg/kg, in soil. The use of labelled glyphosate as internal standard allowed improving the recovery and precision for glyphosate and AMPA, while it was not efficient for glufosinate, that was quantified by external standards calibration. The method developed has been applied to the determination of these compounds in real water and soil samples from different areas. All the detections were confirmed by acquiring two transitions for each compound.