Trace determination of triazine herbicides in fruit and vegetables using novel hydrophobic deep eutectic solvent-based dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction followed by high-performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet

In the present research, a novel hydrophobic deep eutectic solvent-based dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction technique was established and combined with high-performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet for the determination of triazine herbicides in fruit and vegetable samples. A deep eutectic solvent was synthesized using l-menthol as a hydrogen bond acceptor and ethylene glycol as a hydrogen bond donor and used as a green extractant. The characterization of deep eutectic solvent was investigated by Fourier-transform infrared, nuclear magnetic resonance, and thermogravimetric analysis. Under the optimum conditions, relative standard deviation values for intra-day and inter-day of the method based on seven replicate measurements of 50.0 mu g/kg of triazines were in the range of 2.8%-5.5% and 3.7%-7.2%, respectively. The calibration graphs were linear in the range of 3.0-500 mu g/kg and the limits of detection were in the range of 1.0-2.0 mu g/kg. The relative recoveries of different fruit and vegetable samples that have been spiked with two levels of target compounds were 91.5%-109.8%. The method has good linearity, sensitivity, accuracy, and precision. It is also environmentally friendly and was successfully used to determine the concentrations of triazines in fruit and vegetable samples.

Automated summary

A novel hydrophobic deep eutectic solvent-based dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction technique was developed and combined with high-performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet for the determination of triazine herbicides in fruit and vegetable samples. The method exhibited good linearity, sensitivity, accuracy, and precision, while also being environmentally friendly.