Improved chromatographic method for the simultaneous determination of ten phenylurea herbicides and some of their degradation products in soil

A new analytical method is presented for the simultaneous determination of ten phenylureas and six degradation products. This is the first multiresidue method for these herbicides that includes the most prominent metabolites in soil, the monodesalkyl derivatives and, therefore, complements and improves existing methods. After extraction, the compounds are separated on two coupled columns with Nucleosil-100 C-18, 3 mu m with a gradient of acetonitrile in water. The method has a detection limit of 0.02 mg/kg soil and can be applied for the determination of phenylureas and their degradates without clean-up.