Rapid analysis of triazolopyrimidine sulfoanilide herbicides in waters and soils by high-performance liquid chromatography with UV detection using a C18 monolithic column.

In this work, the simultaneous analysis of five triazolopyrimidine sulfoanilide herbicides (flumetsulam, florasulam, metosulam, cloransulam-methyl, and diclosulam) by HPLC using UV detection and a C18 monolithic column is proposed. The mobile phase which was composed of ACN, water, and formic acid was pumped at a high flow rate (5 mmL/min) providing an analysis time of all the compounds in less than 2.3 min. The LODs were in the low microg/L range (i.e. between 60 microg/L for flumetsulam and 90 microg/L for florasulam) and the calibration curves showed good linearity (R2 > 0.9949). The method was applied to the analysis of these compounds in spiked mineral and tap waters and soils after an SPE preconcentration procedure using C18 cartridges. Mean recovery values ranged between 35 and 110% for water samples providing LODs of the whole procedure in the low ng/L level, down to 280 ng/L, and between 77 and 92% for soil samples with LODs down to 9.38 microg/kg. This is the first time that this family of pesticides is simultaneously analyzed in both types of samples by HPLC and also using a monolithic column.