Rapid determination of sixteen sulfonylurea herbicides in surface water by solid phase extraction cleanup and ultra-high-pressure liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry

A sensitive and very fast analytical method has been developed for the simultaneous quantification of sixteen sulfonylurea herbicides in surface water. An ultra-high-pressure liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry method with solid phase extraction for sample cleanup has been developed for screening sixteen sulfonylurea herbicides (oxasulfuron, thifensulfuron-methyl, cinosulfuron, metsulfuron methyl, sulfometuron methyl, triasulfuron, rimsulfuron, ethametsulfuron methyl, sulfosulfuron, tribenuron methyl, bensulfuron methyl, iodosulfuron methyl, pyrazosulfuron ethyl, prosulfuron, chlorimuron ethyl, ethoxysulfuron) in water samples simultaneously within 12 min. Water samples were acidified, and the target herbicides were extracted by passing through ProElut C18 extraction cartridges. After drying by nitrogen flow, the cartridges were eluted with elution solvents, and the eluate was then evaporated to dryness, redissolved and analyzed. The mobile phase composed of 0.02% formic acid and acetonitrile using gradient elution. A triple quadrupole mass spectrometer equipped with an electrospray ionization source operated in the positive ion with selective reaction monitoring mode. Each of the analytes in all the samples was monitored using protonated molecule and its two characteristic fragment ions for confirmation. The limits of detection for all analytes were below 1.0 ng/mL, except for sulfosulfuron and prosulfuron, and limits of quantitation were between 1 and 8 ng/mL for this method. Three water types were used for the validation of the method.