Determination of triazines in soil leachates by solid-phase microextraction coupled to gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

A solid-phase microextraction–gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (SPME–GC–MS) method was developed for the evaluation of the leachability order of selected triazines (propazine, terbuthylazine, sebuthylazine, ametryn, prometryn and terbutryn) in soil/sediment samples (organic carbon content ranging from 0.19 to 0.42%), analysing fractions collected from a soil packed microcolumn elution experiments. The procedure is fast, simple, highly sensitive and solvent free. SPME–GC–MS was also employed for the quantitative determination of triazines in the soil leachate, since the method showed good recovery yield. Detection limits were always better than 1 ng ml−1. The method was tested on a contaminated landfill top soil. Prometryn and ametryn were identified through their MS spectra and then quantified. Terbuthylazine was used to assess recovery. Results compared well with those obtained by solvent extraction followed by HPLC–UV detection.