Determination of sulfonylurea herbicides in grain by UPLC/MS/MS

An ultra performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometric(UPLC/MS/MS) method was developed for the determination of the fifteen sulfony-lurea herbicides in grain.The samples were extracted with acetonitrile followed by liquid-liquid partition with hexane,cleaned-up by Carbon/NH2 solid phase and finally determined by UPLC/MS/MS in multiple reaction monitoring(MRM) mode with positive electrospray ionization(ESI+).All the standard calibration curves for fifteen sulfonylurea herbicides showed high correlation coefficients over the range of 2~200 μg/L,with the correlation coefficients between 0.9995 and 0.9999.The average recoveries of the fifteen sulfonylurea herbicides between 5 μg/kg and 100 μg/kg were between 71.6% and 115.3%,with the relative standard deviations(RSDs) less than 15%.The limits of quantification(S/N≥10) of all the fifteen sulfonylurea herbicides were 5 μg/kg.These indicated that the method developed in this study is easy,fast and sensitive,and it can meet the requirements of the multiple pesticide residue analysis.So,this method can be further applied to the detection of sulfonylurea herbicides in grain.