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Determination of glyphosate in groundwater samples using an ultrasensitive immunoassay and confirmation by on-line solid-phase extraction followed by liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry

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An Erratum to this article was published on 18 April 2012

Abstract

Despite having been the focus of much attention from the scientific community during recent years, glyphosate is still a challenging compound from an analytical point of view because of its physicochemical properties: relatively low molecular weight, high polarity, high water solubility, low organic solvent solubility, amphoteric behaviour and ease to form metal complexes. Large efforts have been directed towards developing suitable, sensitive and robust methods for the routine analysis of this widely used herbicide. In the present work, a magnetic particle immunoassay (IA) has been evaluated for fast, reliable and accurate part-per-trillion monitoring of glyphosate in water matrixes, in combination with a new analytical method based on solid-phase extraction (SPE), followed by liquid chromatography (LC) coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS), for the confirmatory analysis of positive samples. The magnetic particle IA has been applied to the analysis of about 140 samples of groundwater from Catalonia (NE Spain) collected during four sampling campaigns. Glyphosate was present above limit of quantification levels in 41% of the samples with concentrations as high as 2.5 μg/L and a mean concentration of 200 ng/L. Good agreement was obtained when comparing the results from IA and on-line SPE-LC-MS/MS analyses. In addition, no false negatives were obtained by the use of the rapid IA. This is one of the few works related to the analysis of glyphosate in real groundwater samples and the presented data confirm that, although it has low mobility in soils, glyphosate is capable of reaching groundwater.

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Acknowledgements

This work has been supported by the Agencia Catalana de l’Aigua (ACA) and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the projects SCARCE Consolider-Ingenio 2010 CSD2009-00065 and CEMAGUA (CGL2007-64551/HID). The authors thank the collaboration with Abraxis that has supplied for free the immunoreagents involved in this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDAEA-CSIC), C/Jordi Girona, 18-26, 08034, Barcelona, Spain

    Josep Sanchís, Lina Kantiani, Marta Llorca, Antoni Ginebreda & Marinella Farré

  2. Abraxis LLC, 54 Steam Whistle Drive, Warminster, PA, 18974, USA

    Fernando Rubio

  3. Catalan Water Agency, Provença 204-208, 08036, Barcelona, Spain

    Josep Fraile & Teresa Garrido

Authors
  1. Josep Sanchís
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  2. Lina Kantiani
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  3. Marta Llorca
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  4. Fernando Rubio
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  5. Antoni Ginebreda
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  6. Josep Fraile
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  7. Teresa Garrido
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  8. Marinella Farré
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marinella Farré.

Additional information

Published in the special issue Mass Spectrometry in Spain with guest editors José Miguel Vadillo and Damìa Barcelo.

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Sanchís, J., Kantiani, L., Llorca, M. et al. Determination of glyphosate in groundwater samples using an ultrasensitive immunoassay and confirmation by on-line solid-phase extraction followed by liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry. Anal Bioanal Chem 402, 2335–2345 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-011-5541-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-011-5541-y

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