Determination of chloro-s-triazines including didealkylatrazine using solid-phase extraction coupled with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

Chloro-s-triazines are a class of compounds comprising atrazine, simazine, propazine, cyanazine and their chlorinated metabolites. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has determined that selected chloro-s-triazines – atrazine, simazine, propazine, deethylatrazine, deisopropylatrazine, and didealkylatrazine – have a common mode of toxicity related to endocrine disruption. In this paper, a dual-resin solid-phase extraction (SPE) gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) method is reported that provides for each of these chloro-s-triazines including the polar metabolite, didealkylatrazine. The method utilizes deuterated internal standards for quantitation and terbuthylazine as a recovery standard. The limit-of-detection was 0.01 μg/L for simazine, deethylatrazine, deisopropylatrazine and didealkylatrazine, and 0.02 μg/L for atrazine and propazine in surface water. Mean recoveries for 0.5 and 3.0 μg/L spikes for atrazine, simazine, propazine, deethylatrazine, deisopropylatrazine and didealkylatrazine were 94, 104, 103, 110, 108 and 102%, respectively, in surface water. The method was also validated by matrix spikes into fourteen different raw and treated natural surface waters. This method is useful for monitoring “total chloro-s-triazines” in both raw and treated drinking waters.