A SIMPLE METHOD FOR QUANTIFYING TRIAZINE HERBICIDES USING THIN-LAYER CHROMATOGRAPHY AND A CCD CAMERA

Abstract

We present a video-densitometric quantification method for the triazine herbicides atraton, terbumeton, simazine, atrazine, and terbutylazine. Triazine herbicides were separated on silica gel using methyl-t-butyl ether, cyclohexane (1 + 1, v/v) as mobile phase. The quantification is based on a derivation reaction using chlorine and starch-iodine which forms red-brown triazine zones. Measurements were carried out using a 16 bit ST-1603ME CCD camera with 1.56 megapixel from Santa Barbara Instrument Group, Inc., Santa Barbara, USA. A white LED was used for illumination purposes. The range of linearity covers two magnitudes using the (1/R-1) expression data transformation. The signal-to-noise ratio increases directly linearly with the measurement time. The separation method is cheap, fast and reliable.

Keywords:

• derivatization
• HPTLC
• linear calibration range
• quantification
• TLC
• triazine herbicides
• video densitometry

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors express their appreciation to J&M GmbH (Aalen, Germany), Merck-Company (Darmstadt, Germany) and DESAGA GmbH (Wiesloch, Germany) for support.

Notes

This work is dedicated to Dr. R. E. Kaiser on the occasion of his 80th birthday.