Rapid and Sensitive Determination of Benzalkonium Chloride Biocide Residues in Soil Using Liquid Chromatography–Tandem Mass Spectrometry after Ultrasonically Assisted Extraction

Abstract

The trace level determination of five benzalkonium chloride (BAC) compounds in soil was investigated using ion‐pairing liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. The instrumental intensities of the target compounds were compared with four ion‐pairing reagents, and 30 mM perfluoroheptanoic acid (PFHA) was selected as the best reagent. An ultrasonically assisted extraction method was developed for soil. The optimum extraction conditions were as follows: extraction solvent, 30 mM PFHA in an acetone:acetonitrile (1:1, vol/vol) mixture; pH 7; volume, 20 mL; and extraction time, 30 min. Under the established conditions, the limits of quantification ranged from 0.3 to 3.6 μg/kg, the accuracy ranged from 90.1 to 112%, and the intra‐ and interday relative standard deviations were <13% at concentrations of 10, 50, and 100 μg/kg. The developed method was used to analyze target compounds in 50 soil samples collected from 40 survey sites and 10 background sites. The total BACs were within a concentration range of 0.001–28.5 mg/kg in soil. The developed method confirms the existence of BAC residues in real soil, providing an important tool to evaluate the behavior of disinfectants in soil and can be used to study residual amounts of BACs in soil.

A fast and robust method for the extraction and analysis of quaternary alkyl ammonium compounds from soil and sewage sludge

“…Acidified MeOH [ 15 , 16 , 19 , 21 ] and AcN [ 22 , 23 ] are the most commonly used solvents for the QAAC extraction of sludges, water and sediments. In our extraction trials we found that AcN with HCl worked best for soils ( Table 3 ).…”

Comparison of aqueous and non-aqueous capillary electrophoresis for the determination of four benzalkonium chloride homologues in compound chemical disinfectants

“…High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is used for separating BAC components, but the separation efficiency of the chromatographic column makes it challenging to completely separate the three components of BAC from the real sample matrix, making it unsuitable for simultaneously detecting multiple quaternary ammonium components in compound chemical disinfectant. Reverse-phase ion-pair HPLC using ion-pair reagents can alter the column efficiency and has a long equilibration time [ 20 ]. Furthermore, the unfavorable strong adsorption capacity of long-chain BAC can lead to peak tailing, affecting the integration of peaks for quantitative analysis [ 21 ].…”

Pronounced temporal changes in soil microbial community and nitrogen transformation caused by benzalkonium chloride

“…Some researchers predicted that the concentration of QACs entering the soil through the application of organic fertilizers was about 3.5 mg/kg ( Mulder et al., 2018 ). Moreover, up to 28.5 mg/kg of benzalkonium chlorides (BACs) were still detected in soils in one region of South Korea for 6 months after the application of disinfectants containing BACs ( Kang and Shin, 2016 ). Besides, QACs were detected in some farmland soils at concentrations as high as 0.82 mg/kg due to irrigation with QACs-tainted wastewater ( Jardak et al., 2016 ).…”