Recent advances in sorbents applications and techniques used for solid-phase extraction of atrazine and its metabolites deisopropylatrazine and deethylatrazine: a review

ABSTRACT

SPE is the most widely used technique for extraction, clean-up, and pre-concentration of various samples since sample preparation is a crucial step in the analytical process. SPE has been used to pre-concentrate atrazine (ATZ) and its metabolites from different sample matrices at extremely low levels. ATZ is a herbicide for destroying weeds in plants; however, ATZ and its metabolites are toxic above permitted concentrations of 3 ppb. The objective of this review is to provide a summary of recent advances, applications and techniques of SPE sorbents in sample preparation used for extracting ATZ and its primary metabolites prior to chromatographic analysis. The sorbents considered include silica-based sorbents, activated carbon (AC), nanostructured materials (NMs), graphitised carbon black (GCB), molecularly-imprinted polymers (MIP) and polymer sorbents (PS) focusing on SPE. The efficiency of sorbents is demonstrated in terms of recoveries achieved and lowest detection limit (LOD). Of late, research interest in the production of AC has been focused on agricultural residues. Agricultural sorbents derived from agricultural wastes have demonstrated outstanding abilities for the removal of ATZ though there is very limited application of them for SPE. These sorbents are seen as alternatives to known commercial sorbent for remediation of ATZ. Therefore, future prospects are proposed to improve development of new SPE sorbents that are based on affordability, selectivity and efficiency.

KEYWORDS:

• Sorbents
• solid-phase extraction
• nanomaterials
• polymeric materials
• molecularly imprinted polymers
• atrazine

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the National Research foundation for sponsorship of Ms Bongeka Mavumengwana towards her Doctoral degree in Environmental Management and Tshwane University of Technology for providing an enabling environment.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF) South Africa [Grant no. 111575].