Determination of organophosphorus pesticides in water samples by single drop microextraction and gas chromatography-flame photometric detector

In this paper we have developed single drop microextraction (SDME) with modified 1.00 μl microsyringe, followed by gas chromatography with flame photometric detector (GC-FPD) for determination of 13 organophosphorus pesticides (OPPs) in water samples. By using a 1.00 μl microsyringe the repeatability of drop volume and injection were improved, because of using maximum volume of microsyringe and no dead volume. On the other hand, the modification of needle tip caused increasing cross section of needle tip and increasing adhesion force between needle tip and drop, thereby increasing drop stability and achieving a higher stirrer speed (up to 1700 rpm). The method used 0.9 μl of carbon tetrachloride as extractant solvent, 40 min extraction time, stirring at 1300 rpm and no salt addition. The enrichment factor of this method ranged from 540 to 830. The linear ranges were 0.01–100 μg/l (four orders of magnitude) and limits of detection were 0.001–0.005 μg/l for most of analyte. The relative standard deviation (RSD%) for 2 μg/l of OPPs in water by using internal standard was in the range 1.1–8.6% (n = 5). The recoveries of OPPs from farm water at spiking level of 1.0 μg/l were 91–104%.