The monitoring of pesticide residues in water sources is essential because of their increased worldwide demand in agriculture and their subsequent detection in waters. Pesticide residues in water matrices are traditionally determined by multiresidue methodologies based on chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. However, for quaternary ammonium pesticide residues, as highly polar compounds, the chromatographic approach frequently fails, requiring modifications in the separation method, or even an alternative technique for analyte quantification. Therefore, to solve this analytical limitation for these residues, several authors proposed unusual methodologies, such as those based on spectroscopic or electroanalytical approaches. This review intends to offer an overview of the analysis of quaternary ammonium pesticide residues in different water sources, focusing on advances in sample preparation before chromatographic separations and alternative analytical techniques, such as spectroscopy and electroanalytical methods.

监测水源中的农药残留是必不可少的，因为它们在全球范围内对农业的需求增加以及随后在水中的检测。水基质中的农药残留传统上是通过基于色谱与质谱联用的多残留方法确定的。然而，对于季铵农药残留，作为高极性化合物，色谱方法经常失败，需要对分离方法进行修改，甚至需要对分析物进行定量分析的替代技术。因此，为了解决这些残留物的分析限制，一些作者提出了不同寻常的方法，例如基于光谱或电分析方法的方法。