DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION OF AN AUTOMATED QUASI-CONTINUOUS IMMUNOFLOW INJECTION SYSTEM TO THE ANALYSIS OF PESTICIDE-RESIDUES IN WATER ANDSOIL

This paper presents the development and evaluation of a modified immun oassay format, applying the technique of flow injection immunoanalysis (FIIA) to the quantitative determination of pesticide traces using at razine as the representative analyte. A novel antibody column reactor allows for an effective regeneration of the immobilized antibody activ ity for a minimum of 500 measuring cycles, enabling an automatic contr ol of the status of water contamination by special pesticides. Detecti on limits for atrazine of about 1 ng/L with a polyclonal antibody and approximately 30 ng/L with a monoclonal antibody could be reached, wel l below the maximum pesticide concentration permitted by the European Community Directives for drinking water of 100 ng/L. A series of synth etic and environmental water samples as well as soil extracts was anal yzed with the optimized FILA and GC for validation. A close correspond ence was found between the results of the FIIA and GC measurements.