Tandem solid-phase extraction of atrazine ozonation products in water

The preconcentration of aqueous solutions containing atrazine degradation products was investigated using solid-phase extraction on octadecyl and cation-exchanger silica phases. The retention and elution steps were studied and evaluated separately in order to define and optimize the critical experimental parameters involved. A strategy which combines sequentially both phases is proposed to fractionate compounds into two groups of increasing polarities: firstly, the native pesticide, hydroxyatrazine and most chlorotriazines on octadecyl support, and secondly monodealkylated hydroxytriazines, ammeline and ammelide on cation-exchanger. This tandem procedure was successfully applied for analysing and quantifying atrazine ozonation products and its efficiency demonstrated using [U-ring 14C]-labelled atrazine experiments.