Determination of carbamate pesticides in environmental samples as their trifluoroacetyl or methyl derivatives by using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

Abstract

A method for the determination of seven carbamate pesticides in water and sediment samples is reported. Samples, after extraction and/or a clean-up procedure, were treated with trifluoroacetic anhydride or diazomethane. The resulting trifluoroacetyl or methyl derivatives were determined by capillary GC–MS with selected-ion monitoring. The carbamates could be determined to levels of 0.05–1.00 ng ml^–1 in water with relative standard deviations (s_r) or 2.6–22.6% and 10 ng g^–1 in sediment with s_r values of 5.0–20.3%. The detection limits of the carbamates in water and sediment were 0.014–0.18 ng ml^–1 and 1.6–4.6 ng g^–1, respectively. Their recoveries from water and sediment were 83–127% and 55–129%, respectively.