Method validation and application of a selective multiresidue analysis of highly polar pesticides in food matrices using hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry.

The effectiveness of highly polar pesticides in agriculture is well known, while their low costs contribute to the frequent use. On the other hand, their physicochemical properties make their analytical determination a challenging task. The aim of this study is the evaluation of a methanol-based extraction method with a simple clean-up step using a selective multiresidue LC-MS/MS method for 14 highly polar pesticides and their metabolites. For the clean-up step, several sorbents from different brands, with diverse mechanisms of action, were tested. Different dilution factors for the final extract were also evaluated in order to check the impact on the matrix effects. The optimised method was validated for matrices from different commodity groups. Recovery studies performed with grapes, lettuce, orange, oat and soya beans showed absolute average recoveries in the range 70-120% with relative standard deviation values below 20% for almost all the pesticides tested. The matrix effects observed were very different in each matrix and for each individual pesticide evaluated. Therefore, isotopically labeled procedural internal standards were used for all compounds in order to correct for recovery and matrix effects. Method Limits of Quantification for most analyte-matrix combinations were 0.02 or 0.05 mg kg-1. The final optimised method appeared to be reproducible and robust in routine analysis of a wide variety of fruits, vegetables and cereals. Monitoring results are presented to show the occurrence of the compounds studied in real samples. The residue concentrations ranged from 0.023 to 30 mg kg-1 for the analytes detected.

Screening of pesticide residues in honeybee wax comb by LC-ESI-MS/MS. A pilot study.

A developed multi-residue method using microflow-LC-ESI-QqQ-MS provided a wide-scope analysis for medium-polar and polar pesticide residues (120 compounds including breakdown products). Honeybee wax comb samples were extracted using a generic QuEChERS based procedure. Acceptable recoveries at concentration levels of 5 and 50 µg kg(-1) were within the 70-120% range with an associated precision RSD <20%. The LOQ values were mostly 5 µg kg(-1) for almost all pesticides. Aprox. 31 of 120 LC-amenable pesticides tested (25.8%) were detected in a pilot study of 60 samples. Pesticide residues detected using the proposed method were: the breakdown products of amitraz, DMPF and DMF, an acaricide used for Varroa mite control, with a range of concentration from 5 to 464 µg kg(-1) (sum of DMPF + DMF), organophosphate insecticides from 1 to 464 µg kg(-1), acaricides at concentrations > 9 µg kg(-1); fungicides at concentrations ranging from 1 to 23 µg kg(-1.) The number of positive detections due to herbicides was lower as expected and at a lower level of concentration, from 1 to 5.9 µg kg(-1).

The role of sorption and biodegradation in the removal of acetaminophen, carbamazepine, caffeine, naproxen and sulfamethoxazole during soil contact: A kinetics study.

In countries like Spain, where water is a limited resource, reusing effluents from wastewater treatment plants may imply the introduction of incompletely eliminated pollutants into the environment. Therefore, this work identified the role of sorption and biodegradation in attenuating pharmaceutical compounds (acetaminophen, carbamazepine, caffeine, naproxen and sulfamethoxazole) in natural soil. It also determined which sorption and removal ("sorption+biodegradation") kinetics models describe the behaviour of these substances in the water-soil system. Presence of potential transformation products (TPs) as a result of pharmaceuticals biodegradation was also studied. To this end, serial batch-type experiments were performed with a soil:water ratio of 1:4 and an initial pharmaceutical concentration of 100µgL(-1). Despite results are dependent on soil characteristics, they revealed that, for those substances with a higher affinity to the soil used (loamy sand), sorption seems to play a key role during the first 48h of contact with soil, and gives way to biodegradation afterwards. The sorption of the pharmaceuticals studied follows a pseudo second-order kinetics. Caffeine and sulfamethoxazole displayed the fastest initial sorption velocities (h=2055 and h=228µgkg(-1)h(-1), respectively). The removal kinetics experiments, satisfactorily simulated by the first-order kinetics model, indicated the presence of potential microbial adaptation to degradation. Indeed, half-lives decreased from 1.6- to 11.7-fold with respect to initial values. The microbial capacity to degrade sulfamethoxazole could be a matter of concern if bacteria have developed resistance to this antibiotic. Caffeine, acetaminophen and sulfamethoxazole were mitigated to a greater extent, whereas the removal of naproxen and carbamazepine was more limited. The appearance of epoxy-carbamazepine and N4-acetyl-sulfamethoxazole as possible TPs of carbamazepine and sulfamethoxazole, respectively, indicated that biodegradation was incomplete and showed the capacity of soil microbes to transform these substances.

Application of zirconium dioxide nanoparticle sorbent for the clean-up step in post-harvest pesticide residue analysis.

The use of yttria-stabilized zirconium dioxide nanoparticles as d-SPE clean-up sorbent for a rapid and sensitive liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS) method for the determination of post-harvest fungicides (carbaryl, carbendazim, chlorpropham, diphenylamine, ethoxyquin, flutriafol, imazalil, iprodione, methomyl, myclobutanil, pirimiphos-methyl, prochloraz, pyrimethanil, thiabendazole, thiophanate-methyl and tolclofos-methyl) in orange and pear samples has been evaluated and validated. The sample preparation was a modification of the QuEChERS extraction method using yttria-stabilized zirconium dioxide and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) nanoparticles as the solid phase extraction (d-SPE) clean-up sorbents prior to injecting the ten-fold diluted extracts into the LC system. By using the yttria-stabilized zirconium dioxide extraction method, more recoveries in the 70-120% range were obtained - thus this method was used for the validation. Quantification was carried out using a matrix-matched calibration curve which was linear in the 1-500 µg kg(-1) range for almost all the pesticides studied. The validated limit of quantification was 10 µg kg(-1) for most of the studied compounds, except chlorpropham, ethoxyquin and thiophanate-methyl. Pesticide recoveries at the 10 and 100 µg kg(-1) concentration levels were satisfactory, with values between 77% and 120% and relative standard deviations (RSD) lower than 10% (n=5). The developed method was applied for the determination of selected fungicides in 20 real orange and pear samples. Four different pesticide residues were detected in 10 of these commodities; 20% of the samples contained pesticide residues at a quantifiable level (equal to or above the LOQs) for at least one pesticide residue. The most frequently-detected pesticide residues were: carbendazim, thiabendazole and imazalil-all were below the MRL. The highest concentration found was imazalil at 1175 µg kg(-1) in a pear sample.

Microflow liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry--an approach to significantly increase sensitivity, decrease matrix effects, and reduce organic solvent usage in pesticide residue analysis.

This manuscript reports a new pesticide residue analysis method employing a microflow-liquid chromatography system coupled to a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer (microflow-LC-ESI-QqQ-MS). This uses an electrospray ionization source with a narrow tip emitter to generate smaller droplets. A validation study was undertaken to establish performance characteristics for this new approach on 90 pesticide residues, including their degradation products, in three commodities (tomato, pepper, and orange). The significant benefits of the microflow-LC-MS/MS-based method were a high sensitivity gain and a notable reduction in matrix effects delivered by a dilution of the sample (up to 30-fold); this is as a result of competition reduction between the matrix compounds and analytes for charge during ionization. Overall robustness and a capability to withstand long analytical runs using the microflow-LC-MS system have been demonstrated (for 100 consecutive injections without any maintenance being required). Quality controls based on the results of internal standards added at the samples' extraction, dilution, and injection steps were also satisfactory. The LOQ values were mostly 5 µg kg(-1) for almost all pesticide residues. Other benefits were a substantial reduction in solvent usage and waste disposal as well as a decrease in the run-time. The method was successfully applied in the routine analysis of 50 fruit and vegetable samples labeled as organically produced.

Energy efficiency for the removal of non-polar pollutants during ultraviolet irradiation, visible light photocatalysis and ozonation of a wastewater effluent.

This study aims to assess the removal of a set of non-polar pollutants in biologically treated wastewater using ozonation, ultraviolet (UV 254 nm low pressure mercury lamp) and visible light (Xe-arc lamp) irradiation as well as visible light photocatalysis using Ce-doped TiO2. The compounds tracked include UV filters, synthetic musks, herbicides, insecticides, antiseptics and polyaromatic hydrocarbons. Raw wastewater and treated samples were analyzed using stir-bar sorptive extraction coupled with comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (SBSE-CG × GC-TOF-MS). Ozone treatment could remove most pollutants with a global efficiency of over 95% for 209 µM ozone dosage. UV irradiation reduced the total concentration of the sixteen pollutants tested by an average of 63% with high removal of the sunscreen 2-ethylhexyl trans-4-methoxycinnamate (EHMC), the synthetic musk 7-acetyl-1,1,3,4,4,6-hexamethyltetrahydronaphthalene (tonalide, AHTN) and several herbicides. Visible light Ce-TiO2 photocatalysis reached ~70% overall removal with particularly high efficiency for synthetic musks. In terms of power usage efficiency expressed as nmol kJ(-1), the results showed that ozonation was by far the most efficient process, ten-fold over Xe/Ce-TiO2 visible light photocatalysis, the latter being in turn considerably more efficient than UV irradiation. In all cases the efficiency decreased along the treatments due to the lower reaction rate at lower pollutant concentration. The use of photocatalysis greatly improved the efficiency of visible light irradiation. The collector area per order decreased from 9.14 ± 5.11 m(2) m(-3) order(-1) for visible light irradiation to 0.16 ± 0.03 m(2) m(-3) order(-1) for Ce-TiO2 photocatalysis. The toxicity of treated wastewater was assessed using the green alga Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata. Ozonation reduced the toxicity of treated wastewater, while UV irradiation and visible light photocatalysis limited by 20-25% the algal growth due to the accumulation of reaction by-products. Three transformation products were identified and tracked along the treatments.