Determination of chlorotriazines, methylthiotriazines and one methoxytriazine by SPE–LC–UV in water samples

Triazine herbicides form a wide group of substances that belong among the most common agrochemicals applied for pre- and post-emergence weed control. So, they can be found in the environment at trace level. In order to determine their concentrations in water samples by the usual analytical techniques, a preconcentration step is commonly necessary. In this paper, a simple analytical method for the quantification of eight triazines (three chlorotriazines, four methylthiotriazines and one methoxytriazine) in water samples by solid phase extraction-reversed phase liquid chromatography (LC) has been developed. LC shows good analytical performance for simultaneous multiple triazine analysis (repeatability <2%, reproducibility <3%), except for prometon (repeatability 5.52%, reproducibility 16%). The results, obtained by using carbograph and polymeric sorbents for solid phase extraction (SPE), have been compared. The limits of quantification achieved permit the application of the proposed SPE–LC method for the determination of eight triazines in water samples (0.0065–0.028 μg l−1).