A high-performance liquid chromatography-based screening method for the analysis of atrazine, alachlor, and ten of their transformation products

A high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method is presented for the for the fast, quantitative analysis of the target analytes in water and in low organic-carbon, sandy soils that are known to be contaminated with the parent herbicides. Speed and ease of sample preparation was prioritized above minimizing detection limits. Soil samples were extracted using 80:20 methanol:water (volume:volume). Water samples (50 µL) were injected directly into the HPLC without prior preparation. Method quantification limits for soil samples (10 g dry weight) and water samples ranged from 20 to 110 ng/g and from 20 to 110 µg/L for atrazine and its transformation products and from 80 to 320 ng/g and from 80 to 320 µg/L for alachlor and its transformation products, respectively.