Recent Advances in Electrochemical Determination of Pesticides.

Widespread usage of pesticides in agricultural practice caused their residues to appear in water and food products intended for human consumption. The potential toxicity of these resources has raised awareness about pesticide tracking in the environment. Development of reliable electrochemical sensors for the on-site determination of pesticide concentrations is envisioned as an alternative to conventional chromatographic methods which are robust, expensive and require skilled work force. Modification of the working electrode surface can result in enhanced electrochemical response towards selected pesticide making such electrode convenient sensor for facile and efficient determination of pesticides in low concentrations. New generation of nanomaterials is applied in electrode modification in order to improve its sensitivity and selectivity. The present review summarizes significant advances in voltammetric detection of pesticides for the period of the past five years. The major focus of this review is set to the types of carbon and oxide based materials, metal nanoparticles, composites and other materials employed to upgrade standard electrode configurations such as glassy carbon and carbon paste electrodes, boron doped diamond electrodes, screen printed and film electrodes, metal and amalgam, and other kinds of electrodes.

Multiwalled carbon nanotubes modified with MoO2 nanoparticles for voltammetric determination of the pesticide oxyfluorfen.

A glassy carbon electrode was functionalized by MoO2 nanoparticle-decorated multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and examined as a working electrode in oxyfluorfen (OXY) detection by differential pulse stripping voltammetry (DPSV). Measurement parameters were as follows: initial potential - 0.1 V, end potential + 0.5 V, accumulation potential - 0.15 V, accumulation time 80 s, and scan rate 50 mV s-1. A stripping potential of + 0.315 V vs. Ag/AgCl was employed. The pPesticide oxyfluorfen was determined in model samples by DPSV with good reproducibility (RSD <2.4%) in the concentration range 2.5 to 34.5 ng mL-1, with r = 0.99 and a limit of detection of 1.5 ng mL-1. These results are in the same range as those of HPLC/DAD, which is used as the comparative method. Recovery for OXY determination in a real river water sample was 102%. Analyses in Briton-Robinson buffer has shown to be pH dependent with the best response at pH 6.0. Structural characterization of MoO2-MWCNT by Raman spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, and X-ray crystallography revealed a preserved MWCNT structure decorated with firmly attached clusters of MoO2 nanoparticles. Graphical abstract Glassy carbon electrode functionalized by MoO2 nanoparticle-decorated multiwalled carbon nanotubes is used as a working electrode in the voltammetric determination of pesticide oxyfluorfen in water.