Atrazine detection at ultratrace levels Determining ultratrace levels of the herbicide atrazine in water poses major difficulties. Antonio DiCorcia and colleagues report on new analytical procedures for atrazine and six metabolites using a new solid-phase extraction (SPE) media (Carbograph 4) and liquid chromatography electrospray mass spectrometry (LCESI/MS). In their procedure, up to 4 L of water are passed through the SPE cartridge which is then back eluted with 6 mL 80:20 v:v methylene chloride/methanol and concentrated. The eluent is analyzed by LC-ESI/MS in the positive-ion mode Results on spiked samples showed recoveries for all seven compounds analyzed at >80% with a relative standard deviation of
