High efficiency packed column supercritical fluid chromatography of sulfonylurea herbicides and metabolites from large water samples

Summary Five sulfonylurea herbicides were separated by SFC on both a 25 cm and a 1.6 meter packed column. The former produced rapid analysis, the latter allowed high resolution of a complex mixture containing the solutes of interest. The solutes were simultaneously detected with UV, nitrogen-phosphorus (NPD), and electron capture (ECD) detectors. Peaks of breakdown products of sulfonylureas were characterized by their UV spectra and the presence or absence of nitrogen and chlorine from their NPD and ECD response. Both parent and breakdown products of sulfonylureas were on-line extracted from large water samples with detection limits as low as 50 parts per trillion.