文摘
The imidazolinones are a significant new class of low-use-rate, reduced-environmental-risk herbicides for protectionof a wide variety of agricultural commodities.Becauseof their low rates of application, residues of the imidazolinones in soil need to be monitored at the low ppblevel.Current methodology for this purpose involves an exhaustive base extraction followed by a laborious, time-consuming cleanup procedure to permit analysis at the 5 ppblevel. Using imazethapyr, the most widely utilizedmember of the class, as a representative, we have achieved notonly a limit of quantitation of 1 ppb but also a greatlysimplified cleanup procedure by combining microwave-assisted extraction technology with gas chromatography/electron capture negative chemical ionization mass spectrometry. On a variety of soil types covering afortificationrange of 1-50 ppb, an average recovery of 92% with astandard deviation of 13% was achieved. Control soilextracts gave apparent residues of <0.2 ppb. Samplepreparation time per sample was reduced from 2 h to 10min.