DETERMINATION OF TRACES OF PESTICIDES IN WATER BY SOLID-PHASE EXTRACTION AND LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY IONSPRAY MASS-SPECTROMETRY

A multi-residue analytical method for six pesticides (atrazine, hydrox yatrazine, carbofuran, promecarb, linuron and monolinuron) in drinking water has been developed. The method combines liquid chromatography a nd mass spectrometry using an ionspray interface. The linearity domain , as well as the limits of detection and quantification, were determin ed for each compound. Although satisfactory performance could be achie ved, present drinking water regulations (0.1 mu g l(-1) for single pes ticide) requires a pre-concentration step. This was performed using so lid-phase extraction with octadecyl-bonded silica cartridges. The anal ytical procedure was tested on water samples spiked at the 0.04 and 0. 08 mu g l(-1) levels, and allowed the determination of the investigate d pesticides (except hydroxyatrazine) at these trace concentrations. ( C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.