Study of radiolytic, microbial and thermal degradation of trifluralin herbicide by HRGC and HRGC-MS

In the present work the degradation of trifluralin was studied. First the effects of X-ray and γray radiation upon the degradation were observed. An anaerobic biological degradation was studied. The pyrolysis was used in order study the thermal degradation of trifluralin. Trifluralin submitted to X-ray radiation was not affected. However, it was found in the γ-ray under higher doses. The trifluralin was degraded on a proportion of 20%, 30% and 10% to the doses 240, 320 e 640 kGy respectively. The radiolytic products were analyzed by HRGC/MS which allowed the identification of one of the product. Degradation of trifluralin in soil under anaerobic conditions was 56% after 64 days of incubation period, with three products detected and identified by HRGC and HRGC-MS. (author). 98 refs., 34 figs., 10 tabs