Detecting Carbofuran and Carbaryl in Drinking Water by HPLC-post Column Derivatization

Objectives To develop a method of detecting carbofuran and carbaryl simultaneously in drinking water by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with fluorescence detector.

Methods Samples were extracted by dichloromethane, concentrated by N₂ gas, and then separated through a C₁₈ column by using methanol/water (55:45) as mobile phase. After post-column derivatization, the contents of carbofuran and carbaryl were detected by fluorescence detector.

Results The average recoveries of carbofuran and carbaryl were 99.05% and 91.56%, their correlation coefficient was greater than 0.999, the RSD was 2.0%~4.3% (n=6), and the minimum detectable concentration was 0.4 μg/L and 0.2 μg/L, respectively.

Conclusions The advantage of this method was timesaving, and the results were reliable. The sensitivity and accuracy were suitable for the needs of detecting trace amount of carbofuran and carbaryl in drinking water.