AS144: Offline Automated Extraction of Non-Polar Pesticides in Water with Analysis by GC-MS

Martin Perkins

1st February 2018

AS144: Offline Automated Extraction of Non-Polar Pesticides in Water with Analysis by GC-MS

Levels of pesticides in the environment are subject to strict control and it is therefore critical to have suitable methods for their determination in both the environment and drinking water. Liquid-liquid extraction is an established technique, but can be time consuming and use large volumes of solvent.

The miniaturisation and automation of liquid-liquid extraction offers many advantages including reduction in solvent usage as well as analyst’s time.

This application note determines an offline proof of principle method for an automated method for the extraction of these compounds from aqueous environmental samples.

A suite of 45 pesticides were extracted using the method shown which was based on liquid-liquid extraction automated using the GERSTEL MPS2. Analysis of the prepared extracts was performed using an Agilent 7890 gas chromatograph with triple quadrupole mass spectrometer as a detector (GC/QQQ) with a large volume injection. The use of small scale automated liquid-liquid extraction saves solvent, time and man hours. It also improves the repeatability of the experiments. This application note shows how a set of spiked water samples were extracted, analysed and quantified against a set of matrix matched standards.

INSTRUMENTS USED:

GERSTEL MPS 2 XL-xt
GERSTEL Agitator Maestro software (version 1.4.18.25/3.5)
Agilent 7890 GC with a 7000B Triple quadrupole mass spectrometer.

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