Ultrasound-assisted emulsification-microextraction coupled to ion mobility spectrometry for monitoring of atrazine and simazine in environmental water

Triazine herbicides and some of their transformation products are considered as one of the most important classes of chemical pollutants owing to their wide-spread use and toxicity. Triazines and their degradation products have caused concern because they are toxic and persistent in water, soil, and organisms. The present paper describes the validation of ultrasound-assisted emulsification-microextraction (USAEME) method for determination of atrazine and simazine using ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) in environmental water. The parameters influencing the extraction efficiency such as sonication time, extraction solvent, extraction volume and salt concentration were investigated. Under the optimum conditions, enrichment factors was 170 and 150 with corresponding LOD of 8 and 12 mu g/L for atrazine and simazine respectively. Linearity with a coefficient of estimation (r(2)) were >0.99 in the concentration level range of 15-1500 mu g/L and 20-1700 mu g/L for extraction of atrazine and simazine in water samples. The proposed method successfully was applied to screen of atrazine and simazine in environmental water.