Development and Application of a Multi-Residue Method to Determine Pesticides in Agricultural Water Using QuEChERS Extraction and LC-MS/MS Analysis

Agricultural water is closely linked to surface and ground water as well as soil; hence, ensuring its safety is an important endeavor. We used the “quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe” (QuEChERS) method to analyze multi-residue pesticides in agricultural water by using a combined-sorbent...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Nho-Eul Song, Young Sung Jung, Ji Yeon Choi, Minseon Koo, Hyo-Kyoung Choi, Dong-Ho Seo, Tae-Gyu Lim, Tae Gyu Nam
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2020-10-01
Series:Separations
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2297-8739/7/4/52
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Summary:Agricultural water is closely linked to surface and ground water as well as soil; hence, ensuring its safety is an important endeavor. We used the “quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe” (QuEChERS) method to analyze multi-residue pesticides in agricultural water by using a combined-sorbent-based clean-up procedure. Among the various sorbents examined, clean-up using ENVI-Carb combined with a primary secondary amine sorbent delivered the highest recovery of multi-residue pesticides (>93.9%). While the developed method showed satisfactory linearity (R<sup>2</sup> > 0.9991), precision, and specificity, recovery was low for pyrazolate (29.1%) and thidiazuron (59.2%). The limits of detection and quantification for the 55 pesticides targeted in this study were in 0.02–3.0 μg L<sup>−1</sup> and 0.1–9.9 μg L<sup>−1</sup>, respectively. The developed method was used to identify and quantify multi-residue pesticides during sample analysis. The results suggest that the QuEChERS method employing a combination of ENVI-Carb and another sorbent can be applied for the effective analysis of multi-residue pesticides in agricultural water.
ISSN:2297-8739