Monitoring organophosphorus pesticides and their degradation products formed by Fenton's reagent using solid-phase extraction gas chromatography mass spectrometry

Abstract

Styrene-divinylbenzene co-polymer (PLRP-S) has been found to be a suitable sorbent for the extraction of organophosphorus pesticides (OPPs) and their decomposition products formed by reaction with the Fenton reagent. The preconcentrated analytes have been eluted with ethyl acetate and analysed by GC-MS. A linear calibration graph was obtained for 0.5–40 µg L-1 of OPPs using 60 ml of sample volume. The limit of detection varied between 13 ng L-1 and 62 ng L-1 for different OPPs when 160 mL sample volume spiked at 0.1 µg L-1 analytes was analysed. Most OPPs were found to degrade to about 1% within 15 minutes; oxon derivatives were found as the first degradation products.