Liquid chromatographic determination of nine N ‐methylcarbamates in drinking water

A multi‐residue method for the simultaneous extraction from drinking water using solid‐phase extraction on LiChrolut EN [poly(styrene‐divinylbenzene), PSDVB] and determination of nine N ‐methylcarbamate pesticides (NMCs) (aldicarb, its metabolites i.e. aldicarb sulfone and aldicarb sulfoxide and carbaryl, carbofuran, dioxacarb, ethiofencarb, methomyl and propoxur) using reversed‐phase liquid chromatography was studied. A 1000‐fold pre‐concentration was achieved and the method was used for determination of the nine pesticides in water, with limits of detection in the range 3–15 ng L −1 . For all compounds the recoveries determined at the 0.1 and 1 µg L −1 level generally ranged from 85 to 104% with relative standard deviations (RSD) of 1.4–8.8%. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.