HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHIC DETERMINATION OF C-14-LABELEDTERBUTHYLAZINE AND PRINCIPAL DEGRADATES IN PERCOLATION WATER AND SOILEXTRACTS FROM LEACHING EXPERIMENTS

A new very porous polystyrene-divinylbenzene copolymer with large surf ace area as an adsorber for solid-phase extraction (SPE), was used for the analyses of terbuthylazine and principal degradates. It showed go od recovery rates even for the dealkylated hydroxy metabolites. The po lymer was treated similarly to a reversed-phase material, samples of 1 000 ml showed no breakthrough for most of the terbuthylazine degradate s. A detection limit of 0.1 mu g/l could be reached even for the most polar compounds (de-tert.-butyldeethylterbuthylazine and de-tert.-buty lhydroxyterbuthylazine) with recovery rates of 22 and 30%. Percolated water and soil extracts from column experiments, obtained with water a nd methanol, were analysed using the copolymer sorbent. Analyses were performed on a HPLC system with UV-Vis detection and a scintillation c ounter. The compounds were separated on a RP-8 column with an acetonit rile-phosphate-buffer gradient. In addition to terbuthylazine applied 2 months prior to extraction, deethyl- and hydroxyterbuthylazine were detected in the soil extracts; de-tert.-butylterbuthylazine was found only in traces.