A rapid and sensitive method for gas‐liquid chromatographic determination of N‐nitrosodimethylamine in formulations of chlormequat chloride

Abstract

A rapid and sensitive method for the isolation, clean‐up and gas‐liquid chromatographic determination of trace quantities of N‐nitro‐sodimethylamine (NDMA) in an aqueous formulation of 2‐chloroethyltrimethylammonium chloride (chlormequat chloride) is reported. Seventeen samples of two different formulations were collected and analyzed. The levels of NDMA ranged from 0.08 to 0.2 μg g−1 of chlormequat chloride. The minimum detectable amount was 0.01 ng which is equivalent to 0.01 μg g−1 or 0.03 μg g−1 depending on the concentration of the active ingredient in the formulation. Recoveries from the samples spiked with NDMA standard at 0.23, 0.17 and 0.11 μg g−1 were 90–102% with a mean of 98.4% and an overall coefficient of variation of 3.7%. The detector response was found to be linear within the range 0.05 ng to 0.2 ng.