Development of an automated high-performance liquid chromatographic method for the on-line pre-concentration and determination of trace concentrations of pesticides in drinking water

An automated reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method has been developed for the determination of trace concentrations of propoxur, carbofuran, carbaryl, propham, captan, chloropropham, barban and butylate in drinking water. A 100-ml of sample water is passed through a 3-cm precolumn, packed with 5-microns ODS sorbent, at a flow-rate of 5 ml/min. The HPLC system is then switched to an acetonitrile-water gradient elution program. The analytes, which are concentrated on the precolumn, are eluted and separated on a 25-cm C8 analytical column and determined by measuring the UV absorption at 220 nm. The resolution of analytes is excellent regardless of whether the elution from the precolumn is done unidirectionally or with backflushing. The precolumn can be used repeatedly for at least 30 samples without a significant decrease in efficiency. The total analytical time is 60 min. Tap, distilled, deionized, commercial spring and HPLC-grade waters were analyzed. The lowest detectable concentrations are in the range of 10.10(-12)-460.10(-12) g/ml for the eight pesticides with 100 ml of sample.