Determination of hexazinone in groundwater by direct-injection high-performance liquid chromatography.

Hexazinone has been detected at levels ranging from 0.2 to 50 micrograms/L in many groundwater samples from eastern Maine over the past decade. A rapid and inexpensive direct-injection high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method has been developed to monitor contamination levels of the herbicide. The method is sensitive (limit of quantitation = 0.33 microgram/L) and is linear to 33.0 micrograms/L (R2 = 0.9995). Direct injection results from 50 field samples compared well (R2 = 0.98) with an HPLC method using solid-phase extraction for concentration and cleanup. The technique is very reproducible (coefficients of variation of 0-8.4% within day and 3.0-13.2% between day) and eliminates loss of analyte because of fewer steps in the procedure.