Separation of the reaction products of cyanazine and terbuthylazine nitrosation by thin-layer chromatography

Abstract

N-Nitroso-triazine herbicide species were synthesized as reference standards and their reaction products were separated by TLC. The method was established for analytical as well as for preparative amounts to achieve a sufficient separation between the educts, the byproducts and the N-nitrosated moieties. Separation of the reaction mixture was performed by two-dimensional TLC, using different mobile phases for each dimension. In the second dimension two developments were executed using the same solvent mixture. To examine the quality of performance, the separation zones were scrapped off, extracted and analyzed in the HPLC-diode array detection (DAD) mode in comparison with standards of the educts and the products of their N-nitrosation. This method minimizes the contact with the resulting N-nitroso compounds. At present nothing is known about the toxicological relevance or risk assessment on human health of N-nitrosocyanazine or N-nitrosoterbuthylazine species. Therefore the practical handling of these putative mutagenic and carcinogenic substances should be seen under the aspect of precaution and prevention of contamination.