Sensitive determination of Fenamiphos in water samples by flow injection photoinduced chemiluminescence

Abstract

In this work, a sensitive flow injection chemiluminescence (FI-CL) method for the determination of nematicide Fenamiphos in a rapid and simple way is proposed. Fenamiphos is first photodegraded in basic medium. These photofragments react with Ce(IV) providing the chemiluminescence signal. To the authors' knowledge, no chemiluminescence method has been described in the literature for the determination of the nematicide Fenamiphos. All physical and chemical parameters in the flow injection chemiluminescence system were optimized in order to obtain the best sensitivity, selectivity and sample throughput. Before the injection of the sample in the FI-CL system, a preconcentration step with solid phase extraction C18 cartridges was performed. By applying solid phase extraction (SPE) to 250 mL of standard (final volume 10 mL), the linear dynamic range was between 3.4 and 60 µg L-1, and the detection limit was 1 µg L-1. When SPE was applied to 500 mL of standard (final volume 10 mL), the detection limit was 0.5 µg L-1. These detection limits are below the emission limit value established by the Spanish Regulations of the Hydraulic Public Domain for pesticides (50 µg L-1) and of the same order as the limit established for total pesticides (0.5 µg L-1) at European Directive on the quality of water for human consumption. The sample throughput was 126 hour-1. Intraday and interday coefficients of variation were below 10% in all cases. No interference was registered in presence of usual concentrations of anions, cations and other organophosphorus pesticides. The method was successfully applied to the analysis of environmental water samples, obtaining recoveries between 96 and 107.5%. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.