Membrane filtration efficiency on triazine herbicides in organic and aqueous solutions

The filtration efficiency of organic contaminants like triazine herbicides class (simazine, atrazine and propazine) has been tested using more types of filter
membranes (PTFE, glass, cellulose acetate, regenerated cellulose) from synthetic solutions with variable content of organic modifiers (acetonitrile and methanol).
Thus, 2 mL of synthetic solutions (10%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% methanol and respectively acetonitrile) were filtered on each of the membrane filters. Simazine pesticide responds very well on PTFE, glass and regenerated cellulose filter membrane when the organic modifiers was acetonitrile. An excellent recovery was obtained when filtering simazine with 25% ACN on PTFE, glass and regenerated cellulose. In case of atrazine was observed a good recovery on the four filters when the solution contained 100% acetonitrile and 75% methanol. The propazine has an efficient filtration on all four membranes, on hydrophobic and hydrophilic
membranes, contrary to theoretical prediction. For the samples prepared in 100% organic solvent (methanol), PTFE filters provided excellent recovery (>95%) for all
three pesticides (simazine, atrazine and propazine). The study is useful in the filtration stage of organic extracts resulting from processing of environmental
samples (water / soil).