Pesticides are compounds that used to control rodents, insects, weeds, fungi, and
anything that is considered to be a "pest". They are used in agriculture to control
weeds in crops. For instance, Atrazine(I) (6-chloro-N-ethyl-N'-(1-methylethyl)-1,3,5-
triazine-2,4-diamine or 2-chloro-4-ethylamino-6-isopropyl amino-s-triazine) is used to
kill weeds in corn fields and sugar cane.
High-performance liquid chromotagraphy (HPLC) has been used to study local
water from Pamlico Sound and Weeksville Road creek. The water samples were extracted
using chloroform. The organic layer was dried and the solvent was removed by rotary
evaporation. The extracts were dissolved in methanol and analyzed using HPLC. A
comparison of the retention times obtained for the extracts and standard atrazine
shows that atrazine is present in the water samples. The concentration of atrazine in
the sample from Pamlico Sound was found to be 0.1433 mg atrazine/mL and that from
Weeksville Road creek was 0.01144 mg atrazine/mL.
