Chromatographic separation of chlorophenoxy acid herbicides and their radiolytic degradation products in water samples

HPLC procedure for simultaneous determination of chlorophenoxy acid herbicides and their radiolytic degradation products in waters is described with the use of octadecylsilica column and spectrophotometric detection at 280 nm. The satisfactory separation was achieved with a mobile phase of pH 2.5 consisting of 43.7 mM acetic acid with 40% (v/v) acetonitrile. Limit of detection values for herbicides and phenol derivatives were in the range of 19–41 μg/l and 10–60 μg/l, respectively. The developed method was applied for monitoring the effectiveness of radiolytic degradation of herbicides. Studies of products of γ-radiolysis of 2,4-dichlorophenol have shown that the efficiency of this process is affected by the presence of naturally occurring scavengers of γ-radiation such as carbonates or nitrates.