SUPERCRITICAL CO2 FLUID EXTRACTION OF FLUOMETURON HERBICIDE FROM SOIL

Soil was treated with C-14-ring-labeled fluometuron [NN-dimethyl-N-[3- (trifluoromethyl)phenyl]ureal (0.516 and 5.16 mumol g-1), air-dried, a nd stored for 6 months at 5-degrees-C. The C-14 was then extracted fro m soil with methanol by conventional extraction (twice with MeOH/H2O 8 0:20 v/v; 2:1 extract/soil v/w) and with CO2 using a supercritical flu id extractor. Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) method development included adding modifiers and varying CO2 fluid density, extraction te mperature, sample mass, and extraction time. Adding H2O to modify the sample was the single most effective variable which improved recovery. Extraction temperatures above 50-degrees-C lowered recovery, presumab ly because of thermal instability of fluometuron. The optiMUM CO2 dens ity at 50-degrees-C was 0.80 g mL-1. Static extraction times greater t han 6 min and dynamic extraction times greater than 18 min did not sig nificantly improve recovery. Recovery using optimum SFE conditions was comparable to that obtained using conventional methods. Extraction of aged field samples indicated that this technology can also be used to extract some common fluometuron metabolites.