Evaluation of an alternative fluorinated sorbent for dispersive solid-phase extraction clean-up of the quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe method for pesticide residues analysis

- An alternative sorbent for d-SPE clean-up in pesticide analyses was proposed.
- Efficient d-SPE obtained with 75 mg of fluorinated sorbent per mL of extract.
- The fluorinated sorbent provided cleaner extracts than more used expensive sorbents.
- Low LOQ values (2.6-5.4 μg kg−1) were achieved with the proposed method.

In this study, the efficiency of a new fluorinated sorbent for dispersive solid-phase extraction (d-SPE) clean-up in extracts provided by the QuEChERS (Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged and Safe) acetate method from tomato and sweet pepper samples was evaluated by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS). Clean-up using d-SPE technique has been widely used associated with the QuEChERS method. The most commonly sorbents used in d-SPE are primary secondary amine (PSA), octadecylsilane (C18) and graphitized carbon black (GCB), which are indicated to remove sugars, fatty acids, pigments, among others. The performance of an alternative fluorinated sorbent was compared with PSA and C18 sorbents for representative pesticides and better results were obtained when the fluorinated sorbent was used. Validation presented acceptable results for trueness and precision, with method limit of detection between 0.9 and 1.8 μg kg−1 and limit of quantification from 2.6 to 5.4 μg kg−1. Most of the compounds presented low matrix effect. Results showed that the fluorinated sorbent contribute to the clean-up of the tomato extract and is an effective alternative, with lower costs and greater efficiency. Commercial tomato samples were analyzed using the proposed method and residues of dimethoate, tetraconazole and thiamethoxam were detected.