On-line trace-level enrichment gas chromatography of triazine herbicides, organophosphorus pesticides, and organosulfur compounds from drinking and surface waters

Abstract

A simple, selective and precise procedure for the analysis of water samples by on-line solid phase extraction gas chromatography (SPE–GC) is presented. The determination of several triazines, organophosphorus pesticides, sulfur containing compounds in tap water was performed by SPE–GC using polymer-packed precolumns and flame ionization (FID), nitrogen–phosphorus (NPD) or flame photometric (FPD) detection. A cartridge packed with silica was inserted between the precolumn and the gas chromatograph in order to eliminate trace amounts of water present in the ethyl acetate used as desorption solvent. Incorporation of a drying step allowed the retention gap to be used for the analysis of ca. 100 samples without significant deterioration of the chromatographic peaks. Analyte recovery was at least 72% when 10 ml of tap-water sample were analysed. The detection limits for all analytes in tap water were lower than 0.1 µg l^–1, with all detectors used. Although with NPD and FPD, selectivity and sensitivity were markedly better. The SPE–GC–NPD system has also been used for the analysis of surface-water samples from different European rivers.