Standard-Compliant Method Determines Phenylurea Compounds in Tap Water

Thermo Fisher Scientific has developed an efficient high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method for the sensitive determination of nine phenylurea compounds in drinking water and commercial bottled beverages with method detection limits that meet those reported in U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Method 532 and concentration limits set in the European Commission’s Council Directive 98/83/EC.

Application Note (AN) 1046: Determination of Phenylurea Compounds in Tap Water and Bottled Green Tea demonstrates that use of on-line solid-phase extraction(SPE) and ultraviolet detection eliminates the need for expensive and time-consuming off-line SPE.

Phenylurea compounds are widely used as agricultural pesticides. Due to their slow degradation, they are frequently detected in surface waters at concentrations above 0.1 μg/L, which is higher than the European Commission’s drinking water limit often used as a quality standard for natural water.

AN 1046 shows that this new determination method, performed using an HPLC dual-pump system, allows detection of concentrations below the 0.1 μg/L limit set in European Commission’s Council Directive 98/83/EC without the labor of off-line SPE, which requires large volumes of organic solvents, and is deficient in terms of process control.