Different surfactant-modified solid sorbents have been comparatively investigated for retention of carbamate pesticides in aqueous solution. Three modified-sorbents, including sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) treated alumina, cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) coated silica and CTAB coated zeolite, were created using different surfactant concentrations. The studied carbamate pesticides including oxamyl, methomyl, aldicarb, carbofuran, carbaryl, isoprocarb, methiocarb, promecarb and carbosulfan were analyzed by HPLC/UV. Adsorption of all carbamate pesticides (concentration range between 0.5-5.0 mg L-1) onto surfactant-modified sorbents followed linear regressions with the correlation coefficients in the range of 0.857-0.995. CTAB-modified zeolite showed high uptake values for carbofuran, carbaryl, methiocarb and carbosulfan. SDS-modified alumina demonstrated high uptake values for carbaryl, isoprocarb, methiocarb, promecarb and carbosulfan. CTAB-modified silica gave high uptake values for methiocarb, promecarb and carbosulfan. Desorption of carbamate pesticides from surfactant-modified sorbents using methanol were better than that obtained from unmodified sorbents. The study clearly proved that the surfactant-modified sorbents are effective for carbamate pesticides extraction.
surfactant-modified sorbent; carbamate pesticides; sorption; retention
