Headspace solid-phase microextraction using a dodecylsulfate-doped polypyrrole film coupled to ion mobility spectrometry for the simultaneous determination of atrazine and ametryn in soil and water samples

A simple and rapid headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) based method is presented for the simultaneous determination of atrazine and ametryn in soil and water samples by ion mobility spectrometry (IMS). A dodecylsulfate-doped polypyrrole (PPy-DS), synthesized by electrochemical method, was applied as a laboratory-made fiber for SPME. The HS-SPME system was designed with a cooling device on the upper part of the sample vial and a circulating water bath for adjusting the sample temperature. The extraction properties of the fiber to spiked soil and water samples with atrazine and ametryn were examined, using a HS-SPME device and thermal desorption in injection port of IMS. Parameters affecting the extraction efficiency such as the volume of water added to the soil, pH effect, extraction time, extraction temperature, salt effect, desorption time, and desorption temperature were investigated. The HS-SPME–IMS method with PPy-DS fiber, provided good repeatability (RSDs < 10 %), simplicity, good sensitivity and short analysis times for spiked soil (200 ng g−1) and water samples (100 and 200 ng mL−1). The calibration graphs were linear in the range of 200–4000 ng g−1 and 50–2800 ng mL−1 for soil and water respectively (R2 > 0.99). Detection limits for atrazine and ametryn were 37 ng g−1 (soil) and 23 ng g−1 (soil) and 15 ng mL−1 (water) and 10 ng mL−1 (water), respectively. To evaluate the accuracy of the proposed method, atrazine and ametryn in the three kinds of soils and two well water samples were determined. Finally, comparing the HS-SPME results for extraction and determination of selected triazines using PPy-DS fiber with the other methods in literature shows that the proposed method has comparable detection limits and RSDs and good linear ranges.