Trace Determination of Pesticides and their Degradation Products in Water

The book covers a critical compilation of analytical methods used for the monitoring of pesticides and their degradation products in water. It contains up-to-date material and is the direct result of the authors' experience in the field of pesticide analysis. The book is structured in six chapters, starting from general aspects of pesticides like usage, physicochemical parameters and occurrence in the environment. A second chapter is devoted to sampling from water matrices, stability methods of pesticides in water and quality assurance issues. The general chromatographic methods for pesticides are reported, including the newly developed electrophoresis methods and GC-MS and LC-MS confirmatory analytical methods. Sample preparation methodologies, including off-line and on-line techniques are described in the next two chapters, with a comprehensive list of examples of pesticides and many metabolites, including the use of different GC-methods and LC-methods. The final chapter is devoted to the development of biological techniques, immunoassays and biosensors, for the trace determination of pesticides in water samples.