Development and validation of thin layer chromatography method for simultaneous determination of seven chlorophenoxy and benzoic acid herbicides in water

Abstract

Thin layer chromatography (TLC) densitometric method for simultaneous determination of seven chlorophenoxy and benzoic acid herbicides (2,4 D; 2,4,5 T; MCPA; 2,4 DP; MCPP; Dicamba and MCPB) in water samples was developed and validated. A mobile phase consisted of benzene−dioxane−glacial acetic acid in ratio of 45 : 10 : 2 and TLC silica gel 60 F 254 aluminium plate were used. Detection was carried out densitometrically at 280 nm. The linearity was obtained in the range 20-200 ng per band with the correlation coefficient between the peak area and concentration for each analyte higher than 0.9976. The limits of detec tion and quantification were 18 and 60 ng per band, respectively. The recoveries of analyzed herbicides varied from 84.5 to 92.7%. The method can be used for routine quality analysis of chlorophenoxy and benzoic acid herbicides in natural surface and ground water samples.