Determination of Carbamate Pesticides and Phthalates in Vegetables by a Cloud Point Extraction Process Using Tergitol 15-s-7 and High Performance Liquid Chromatography

Abstract

An efficient and environmentally friendly analytical process based on cloud point extraction (CPE) has been developed for the determination of carbamate pesticides and phthalates in vegetables by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) separation and ultraviolet detection (UV). The readily biodegradable nonionic surfactant Tergitol 15-S-7 was chosen as the extraction solvent. To obtain optimum extraction efficiency, several experimental parameters including surfactant concentration, salt concentration, equilibration temperature, equilibration time, and sample pH were identified. Under the optimum conditions, the linear regression coefficients of the standard curves were greater than 0.9984. The limits of detection for carbaryl, pirimicarb, dimethyl phthalate (DMP), and diethyl phthalate (DEP) are 0.003, 0.015, 0.012, and 0.006 µg mL⁻¹, respectively. The intra-day and inter-day relative standard deviations are less than 5.75% and 6.97%. The proposed method has been proven to be an efficient, green, rapid, and inexpensive approach for extraction and determination of target analytes present in vegetable samples.

Keywords:

• Cloud point extraction
• High performance liquid chromatography
• Tergitol 15-S-7
• Vegetable samples

Acknowledgments

The project was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21145004) and Jilin Provincial Science & Technology Department (No. 20090121).

Notes

nd: not detected. Level 1 and Level 2 are as shown in Fig. 3.