Development of a multiresidue method for the determination of multiclass pesticides in soil using GC

ABSTRACT: The principal objective of the present study was to develop a multiresidue analytical method for 62 pesticides in a soil matrix. Soil samples were fortifi ed with known quantities of pesticides at two diff erent concentration levels (0.1 and 0.01 μg/g) and the analytes were extracted via a liquid–solid extraction method. The pesticides were separated on an HP5 capillary column and were detected by gas chromatography coupled to an electron capture detector (GC-ECD). The method was validated, considering its good linearities ( r 2 = 0.978–0.999), specifi city and recovery characteristics. Recoveries were found between 70.3 and 113.4% for all pesticides except edifenphos (67.5%) and dichlobenil (69.5%) spiked at a 0.1 μg/mL concentration level and 74.5–117% except ethalfl uralin (63.3%) and dichlobenil (51.9%) spiked at a concentration of 0.01 μg/mL. The developed method could be utilized as a simple and cost-eff ective method for the routine analysis of 62 pesticides in soil samples. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Keywords: