Homogeneous liquid–liquid extraction combined with gas chromatography–electron capture detector for the determination of three pesticide residues in soils

In this study, a new method was developed for analyzing malathion, cypermethrin and lambda-cyhalothrin from soil samples by using homogeneous liquid–liquid extraction (HLLE) and gas chromatography with electron capture detector (GC–ECD). Acetone was used as extraction solvent for the extraction of target pesticides from soil samples. When the extraction process was finished, the target analytes in the extraction solvent were rapidly transferred from the acetone extract to carbon tetrachloride, using HLLE. Under the optimum conditions, linearity was obtained in the range of 0.05–40 μg kg−1 for malathion, 0.04–10 μg kg−1 for lambda-cyhalothrin and 0.05–50 μg kg−1 for cypermethrin, respectively. Coefficients of correlation (r2) ranged from 0.9993 to 0.9998. The repeatability was carried out by spiking soil samples at concentration levels of 2.5 μg kg−1 for lambda-cyhalothrin, and 10 μg kg−1 for malathion and cypermethrin, respectively. The relative standard deviations (RSDs) varied between 2.3 and 9.6% (n = 3). The limits of detection (LODs), based on signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of 3, varied between 0.01 and 0.04 μg kg−1. The relative recoveries of three pesticides from soil A1, A2 and A3 at spiking levels of 2.5, 5 and 10 μg kg−1 were in the range of 82.20–91.60%, 88.90–110.5% and 77.10–98.50%, respectively. In conclusion, the proposed method can be successfully applied for the determination of target pesticide residues in real soil samples.