In this work, the use of the ionic liquid (IL) 1,3-dipentylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate ([PPIm][PF₆]) as an alternative extractant for IL dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (IL-DLLME) of a group of pesticides and metabolites (2-aminobenzimidazole, carbendazim/benomyl, thiabendazole, fuberidazole, carbaryl, 1-naphthol, and triazophos) from soils is described. After performing an initial ultrasound-assisted extraction (USE), the IL-DLLME procedure was applied for the extraction of these organic analytes from soil extracts. Separation and quantification was achieved by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with fluorescence detection (FD). Calibration, precision, and accuracy of the described USE-IL-DLLME-HPLC-FD method using [PPIm][PF₆] as an alternative extractant was evaluated with two soils of different physicochemical properties. Accuracy percentages were in the range 93-118% with RSD values below 20%. A comparison of the performance of [PPIm][PF₆] versus that of the so-common 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate ([HMIm][PF₆]) was accomplished. Results indicate a comparable extraction efficiency with both ILs, being slightly higher with [HMIm][PF₆] for the metabolite 2-aminobenzimidazole, and slightly higher with [PPIm][PF₆] for triazophos. In all cases, LODs were in the low ng/g range (0.02-14.2 ng/g for [HMIm][PF₆] and 0.02-60.5 ng/g for [PPIm][PF₆]). As a result, the current work constitutes a starting point for the use of the IL [PPIm][PF₆] for further analytical approaches.
© 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.