Determination of Pesticide Residues in Tobacco Using Modified QuEChERS Procedure Coupled to On-line Gel Permeation Chromatography-Gas Chromatography/ Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Magnetic graphitized carbon black/primary secondary amine/magnetite (GCB/PSA/Fe3O4) composite material was used as modified QuEChERS adsorbent for the clean-up of tobacco extract. A method for the determination of ten pesticide residues in tobacco was proposed by coupling the modified QuEChERS procedure to on-line gel permeation chromatography-gas chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (GPC-GC-MS/MS). Several parameters affecting clean-up efficiency were investigated. Under optimized conditions including 3.30–5.30 min of on-line GPC collection time, 80 mg of adsorbent amount, and 1.0 min of clean-up time, the limits of detection for target analytes ranged from 0.940 ng L−1 to 100 ng L−1. The linear regression data of the proposed method were obtained with correlation coefficients ≥ 0.9989 for all target analytes. The relative standard deviations for both intra- and inter-day were less than 15.1% and 19.8%, respectively. The recoveries were in the range of 68.8%–132.2% for real samples. Finally, the method was successfully applied to the analysis of pesticide residues in real samples, and the results were in agreement with those obtained from the current standard method.

Magnetic GCB/PSA/Fe3O4 was used as modified QuEChERS adsorbent for the clean-up of tobacco extract, and a method for the determination of 10 pesticide residues in tobacco was proposed by coupling the modified QuEChERS procedure to on-line GPC-GC-MS/MS.Figure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slide