Simultaneous determination of tiafenacil and its six metabolites in fruits using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry.

A simple and reliable analytical method was established for the simultaneous determination of tiafenacil and its six metabolites in fruits. The method involves three steps: extraction using acidified acetonitrile, clean-up by octadecylsilane(C18) and graphitized carbon black (GCB), and detection using liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS). The method was validated on seven matrices spiked at 10, 100 and 1000 μg kg-1. Average recoveries ranged from 73% to 105% with intra-day RSDr (n = 5) of 1.0%-13.0% and inter-day RSDR (n = 15) of 1.1%-14.6%. Good linearities (R2 > 0.9911) were obtained for seven analytes in all matrices. The limit of quantification (LOQs) for tiafenacil and its six metabolites were 10 μg kg-1 in all matrices. This analytical method provides a basis for the establishment of maximum residue limits (MRL) and for the monitoring of tiafenacil residues in fruits.