Prediction of the conditions for supercritical fluid extraction of atrazine from soil

Abstract

Samples of soil were spiked with known concentrations of atrazine and extracted with supercritical carbon dioxide. Quantitative analysis of the extracts was carried out by capillary gas chromatography and the kinetics of extraction were fitted to the ‘hot-ball’ model. The conditions for extraction were predicted from calculated solubilities using the Peng–Robinson equation of state, and were in satisfactory agreement with experiment.