Capillary electrophoresis of pesticides: V. Analysis of pyrethroid insecticides via their hydrolysis products labeled with a fluorescing and UV absorbing tag for laser-induced fluorescence and UV detection.

Some representative standard pyrethroid insecticides, namely permethrin, phenotrin, cypermethrin, sanmarton and fenpropathrin, were subjected to base hydrolysis with the aim of facilitating the indirect determination of these neutral species of low water solubilities by aqueous capillary electrophoresis. This first involved the base fragmentation of the pyrethroids in alcohol buffer (pH 12.0), and then the selective tagging of the carboxylated hydrolytic products with 7-aminonaphthalene-1,3-disulfonic acid (ANDSA) via a condensation reaction in the presence of organic soluble carbodiimide. The tagging of the hydrolytic products with ANDSA imparted each of the derivatives with two strong sulfonic acid groups whose permanent charges were necessary for achieving aqueous capillary electrophoresis. In addition, the labeling with ANDSA allowed the detection of the derivatives at low levels by capillary electrophoresis laser-induced fluorescence. The geometric and optical isomers of the ANDSA derivatives of the pyrethroid hydrolytic products were best separated when using electrolyte systems composed of sodium phosphate buffer, pH 6.5, containing n-octylglucoside chiral surfactant in the presence of small amounts of acetonitrile (e.g., 10% v/v).