Determination of four sulfonylurea herbicides in tea by matrix solid-phase dispersion cleanup followed by dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction

Matrix solid-phase dispersion combined with dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction has been developed as a new sample pretreatment method for the determination of four sulfonylurea herbicides (chlorsulfuron, bensulfuron-methyl, chlorimuron-ethyl, and pyrazosulfuron) in tea by high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection. The extraction and cleanup by matrix solid-phase dispersion was carried out by using CN-silica as dispersant and carbon nanotubes as cleanup sorbent eluted with acidified dichloromethane. The eluent of matrix solid-phase dispersion was evaporated and redissolved in 0.5mL methanol, and used as the dispersive solvent of the following dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction procedure for further purification and enrichment of the target analytes before high-performance liquid chromatography analysis. Under the optimum conditions, the method yielded a linear calibration curve in the concentration range from 5.0 to 10000 ng/g for target analytes with a correlation coefficients (r(2)) ranging from 0.9959 to 0.9998. The limits of detection for the analytes were in the range of 1.31-2.81 ng/g. Recoveries of the four sulfonylurea herbicides at two fortification levels were between 72.8 and 110.6% with relative standard deviations lower than 6.95%. The method was successfully applied to the analysis of four sulfonylurea herbicides in several tea samples.