Investigation of Retention Behavior for Herbicides in Micro‐HPLC with Temperature Changes

The purpose of this study is to improve the detection limit for trace herbicides, and to separate all samples within a short time with the combination of temperature and flow programming with micro‐reversed‐phase liquid chromatography (RPLC). The optimum condition for separation was ACN:0.05 M NaH2PO4 (46:54) (v/v), pH = 4.3, 40°C. The mass sensitivity is in the range between 0.086 × 10−13 g and 3.34 × 10−13 g in micro‐HPLC (HPLC). Micro‐HPLC exhibits higher mass sensitivity and better heat transfer than conventional HPLC. Thus, in the case of micro‐HPLC, the retention behavior of herbicides is easily determined according to the change of temperature. Especially, retention of triazines is decreased to a lesser extent with the increase of column temperature than that of other herbicides. This tendency has been accounted for the thermodynamic parameters ΔH° and ΔS°. The ΔS° for triazines is less negative than that for phenoxy acids, esters, and others. The chromatograms of herbicides were obtained ...