In-situ ionic liquid-based microwave-assisted dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction of triazine herbicides

We report on the determination of the triazine herbicides ametryne, prometryne, terbuthylazine and terbutryn in water samples. The herbicides are extracted by in-situ ionic liquid-based microwave-assisted dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction and then determined by high-performance liquid chromatography. This is a new method for extraction that has the advantages of requiring less volume of ionic liquid (IL) than other methods and at the same time is quite fast. The type and volume of IL, the type and volume of disperser, irradiation temperature, extraction time and salt concentration were optimized. Figures of merit include linear regression coefficients between 0.9992 and 0.9995, acceptable recoveries (88.4-114 %), relative standard deviations of 1.6-6.2 %, and limits of detection between 0.52 and 1.3 mu g L-1.