The Development and Validation of a Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry Procedure for the Determination of Dioctyldiethylenetriamine Acetate Residues in Soil, Green and Cured Tobacco Leaves Using a Modified QuEChERS Approach

A liquid chromatography with electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry method was developed and validated for the determination of dioctyldiethylenetriamine acetate in soil and tobacco. The separation was performed on a Restek Ultra AQ C-18 column (2.1 x 100 mm i.d., particle size 3 A mu m) at 40 A degrees C with a gradient elution. Methanol and trifluoroacetic acid (0.1%) were used as mobile phase, and the flow rate was set at 0.3 mL min(-1). A modified quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe (QuEChERS) method was used for sample extraction and cleanup pretreatment. The recovery was tested in the real samples and calculated to be 86.3-97.4%, the relative standard deviations were 1.1-11.9%. The limits of detection and quantitation were 3.3-16.7 and 10-50 A mu g kg(-1), respectively. The method was demonstrated to be reliable for the routine monitoring of dioctyldiethylenetriamine acetate in tobacco samples.