Study on Mobility, Distribution and Rapid Ion Mobility Spectrometry Detection of Seven Pesticide Residues in Cucumber, Apple, and Cherry Tomato

This research explores the mobility and distribution rules of simazine, acetamiprid, hexazinone, paclobutrazol, amitraz, clofentezine, and boscalid in the pulp and peel of apple, cucumber, and cherry tomato. A laboratory test was carried out by treating the matrices with standard solution for different periods of time. The percentage sorption of pesticides ranged from 0.02 to 89.3% for the three matrices. The pesticides' distribution was also determined, and all pesticides showed ratio values (Q) between pulp and peel concentrations in the three matrices of <0.8, which proved that the highest pesticides' content was found in the peel. In addition, a rapid and simple process combining a surface swab capture method and pulse glow discharge–ion mobility spectrometry (PGD-IMS) detection was established for the detection of pesticides on matrix surfaces. In the swab method, the whole matrix surface was swabbed manually by swab sticks, and swab sticks were agitated in acetonitrile to release the pesticides. The releasing factors of pesticides in the three matrices were calculated. The linearity, LOD, LOQ, and matrix effect were investigated to assess the applicability of the swab-IMS process in practical analysis. The swab-IMS method is rapid, sensitive, and quantitative and can be achieved in the field.