Study of the electrochemical behavior and sensitive detection of pesticides using microelectrodes allied to square-wave voltammetry

This work describes the application of gold and carbon fiber microelectrodes allied to square-wave voltammetry for the study of the electrochemical behavior of the organophosphorous insecticides (methyl parathion and dichlorvos) and bipyridilium herbicides (paraquat and diquat), and the development of the sensitive methodology for their analytical determinations in natural water samples. The microelectrodes were lab-made constructed and their electrochemical behavior was characterized by measuring the electrochemical response with a solution of potassium ferricyanide. The experimental and voltammetric conditions to obtain the best analytical signal, in terms of intensities and profile of the peak voltammetric, for four pesticides were optimized and the results were used to evaluate the type of the electrochemical redox process and to appraise the number of electrons covered in each reduction process that occurred for pesticides and also, to propose a possible redox mechanism for a reduction process of pesticides at microelectrodes. Analytical curves were constructed and presented the linear relationships between the peak currents and the concentration of pesticides, for this, the detection limits for pure water (laboratory samples) for four pesticides were calculated and presented values under 15 mu g L-1, lower than maximum limit for drinking water (100 mu g L-1) permitted by Brazilian Council for groundwater, indicating that the methodology could be employed to analyze those pesticides in natural water samples.