Ozonation of imidacloprid in aqueous solutions: Reaction monitoring and identification of degradation products

This paper presents the degradation of imidacloprid by ozonation. Solutions of 39.0 mu g/mL imidacloprid were prepared either by dissolution of standard or by dilution of Gaucho Ble (R) seed loading solution and then ozonated under different conditions. The concentration of imidacloprid and oxidation products in both solutions was monitored by HPLC-UV as a function of the treatment time for a concentration of 100 g/m(3) of ozone in the inlet gas. No significant difference was observed: in both cases, imidacloprid degradation was a pseudo-first order reaction with similar reaction rates (0.129-0.147 min(-1)), degradation by-products with the same HPLC retention times were observed and their concentrations as a function of the treatment time followed a very similar trend. The study of ozone concentration in the inlet gas (from 25 to 100 g/m(3)) showed that imidacloprid degradation is also a first-order reaction with respect to ozone. The ozonation by-products were then collected and identified by ESI(+)-MS. A degradation pathway of imidacloprid was finally proposed. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.