Comparison of HPLC a GC-MS method for pesticide determination in soil

Physical and chemical properties of pesticides may vary significantly. Pesticides can be acidic, neutral or alkaline. Some compounds containing phosphorus, other sulfur, nitrogen or halogens. These atoms can be important for the detection of pesticides. Some of the compounds are volatile, others on the contrary not evaporate, which is also one of the important properties for chromatography. The diversity of pesticides actually makes it impossible to create a universal method, which is very impractical in terms of quality and time determination. Because that pesticides are one of the most chemicals in most countries. In the food and drinking water are limits on pesticides in order to avoid negative impact on public health. For residues in soil or surface water limits are set. (Lutz et al., 2006) The objective of this thesis is to evaluate the possibility of using two types of chromatographs with different detectors for the analysis of pesticide. Pendimethalin which was chosen for this work, will be analyzed usinga liquid chromatograph with UV detektor and gas chromatography with mass detector. Both this method will be compared as well two extraction methods (Soxhlet extraction and shaking), and two extraction agents (methanol and acetonitrile). Another point of the work is to provethe hypothesis that, for the determination of pendimethalin in soil is by gas chromatography using a mass spectrometer in comparison with the high performance liquid chromatography time and more expensive, but will achieve a higher yield and a lower detection limit of the pesticide