Determination of phenoxyalkanoic acids and other herbicides at the ng/ml level in water by solid-phase extraction with poly(divinylbenzene-co-N-vinylpyrrolidone) sorbent and high-performance liquid chromatography–diode-array detection

A method for the determination of phenoxyalkanoic acids and other polar compounds in environmental water samples without pH adjustment before extraction has been developed. Recoveries were calculated from 500 ml of milliQ water spiked at the level of 0.5 ng/ml using solid-phase extraction (SPE) and HPLC–DAD. Different SPE materials (RP-C18, ENV+, ENV+-C8, SAX and Oasis HLB) were tested. After method optimization, 15 of the 16 compounds studied could be extracted with recoveries better than 70% on the most suitable copolymeric poly(divinylbenzene-co-N-vinylpyrrolidone) material (Oasis HLB cartridges).