Confirmation and method development for dechlorinated atrazine from reductive dehalogenation of atrazine with Fe0 Original Research Article

Batch aqueous experiments using fine-grained (100 mesh) zero-valent iron (Fe0) as an electron donor resulted in reductive dechlorination of atrazine (ATR, 2-chloro-4-ethylamino-6-isopropylamino-1,3,5-triazine). A mass loss of atrazine and degradates determined by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) analysis indicated the presence of an unidentified degradation product. This degradate was identified as dechlorinated atrazine (DCA, 2-ethylamino-4-isopropylamino-1,3,5-triazine) by high-performance liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry (HPLC/MS/MS) and GC/MS analyses. Identification of this compound initiated the development of analytical methods using HPLC, GC/MS, and high-performance liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (HPLC/MS) to simultaneously quantify DCA and ATR. Coefficients of determination (r2) for method calibration curves and method detection limits (MDL) for DCA were 0.999 and 0.15 ng/ml; 0.997 and 6.2 ng/ml; and 0.999 and 0.15 ng/ml for HPLC, GC/MS, and HPLC/MS, respectively. Recovery and standard deviation for DCA at the MDL concentration for each method were 98.0±2.5; 130±3.9; and 110±5.6 for HPLC, GC/MS, and HPLC/MS, respectively.