Fast, cheap and easy routine quantification method for atrazine and its transformation products in water matrixes using a DLLME-GC/MS method

Abstract

In recent years, Brazil has been one of the largest consumers of pesticides in the world, with atrazine (ATZ) being an active principle often used in Brazilian agriculture. In this context, this study is aimed at developing a fast, simple and economical routine methodology for the identification and quantification of ATZ and its transformation products, deisopropylatrazine (DIA) and deethylatrazine (DEA), by using dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction (DLLME) as the extraction technique associated with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) analysis in surface water (class 2 river). The best extraction conditions were set using the Doehlert experimental design. Validation of the developed DLLME-GC/MS methodology showed limits of detection and quantification of 0.050 and 0.150 μg L⁻¹ for ATZ, 0.250 and 0.500 μg L⁻¹ for DEA and 0.250 and 0.900 μg L⁻¹ for DIA, respectively. Parameters such as the matrix effect, repeatability and recovery were evaluated. The proposed method proved to be simple, easy and cost-effective for the analysis of a large number of different types of aqueous samples.