Microextraction using RDSE and BAμE techniques as strategies for the determination of pesticides and emerging contaminants in environmental water samples by UHPLC-MS/MS

The excessive use of pesticides and emerging contaminants result in human health and environmental problems, especially regarding to water resources. In this work, the viability of simple and sensitive microextraction devices for multiresidue determination in water samples is highlighted. The rotating disk sorptive extraction (RDSE)1 technique was used for the development and validation of a method for the determination of 62 pesticide residues in surface water by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC–MS/MS). A small amount (20 mg) of the polymeric sorbent Oasis® HLB was used for extraction. The RDSE method presented limit of detection from 0.015 to 0.03 μg L−1, with recoveries from 70.1 to 119.9% and RSD <20%. The application to river water samples indicated residues of atrazine, azoxystrobin, clomazone, difenoconazole, epoxiconazole, propoxur, simazine and tebuconazole from 0.06 to 0.35 μg L−1. With the bar adsorptive microextraction (BAμE)2 technique, an efficient method was established and validated for the determination of 13 emerging contaminants, representative of pharmaceuticals, hormones, plasticizers and flame retardants, in water by UHPLC-MS/MS. Different coating phases and others parameters were optimized by a central composite design. The sorbent Oasis® HLB presented the best performance with recoveries from 74 to 118% and RSD <19%. Method detection limits from 0.012 to 0.6 μg L-1 were obtained. Real surface and drinking water samples presented bisphenol A (0.08 to 0.665 μg L-1) and paracetamol (0.104 to 4.2 μg L-1).