Aqueous two-phase extraction for determination of triazine herbicides in milk by high-performance liquid chromatography

•Acetonitrile-K2HPO4 based aqueous two-phase system was first developed on extraction of triazines in milk samples.•Deproteinization, extraction and preconcetration were achieved in one single step.•Direct extraction of triazines from milk makes the method potential for treatment of batch samples.

A simple extraction method based on acetonitrile-K2HPO4 aqueous two-phase system was developed for separation and enrichment of five triazines in milk samples. Acetonitrile was used for extraction of analytes from milk sample and precipitation of milk protein. Deproteinization and extraction were achieved in one single step. Analytes were extracted into the upper phase of the aqueous two-phase system. The parameters affecting the extraction efficiency, such as the volume of acetonitrile, the type and amount of salts, pH value of sample and extraction time were investigated. The limits of detection of atraton, desmetryn, atrazine, terbumeton and terbuthylazine were 2.1, 2.6, 2.3, 2.8 and 2.5 μg/L, respectively. When the present method was applied to the analysis of real milk samples, the recoveries of analytes ranged from 86.3 to 120.6% and relative standard deviations were lower than 7.9%.