A simple and rapid phosphorimetric method for the determination of the fungicide fuberidazole in water samples

Abstract The applicability of heavy-atom induced room-temperature phosphorescence to determine pesticides in real samples is demonstrated in this work. Thus a new, simple, rapid and selective phosphorimetric method for fuberidazole determination is proposed. The phosphorescence signals are a consequence of intermolecular protection when analytes are found exclusively in the presence of heavy atom salts and sodium sulphite when used as an oxygen scavenger to minimize RTP quenching, so protective media (such as cyclodextrines, micellar media, etc) are not necessary to use for obtaining phosphorescence in solution. The determination was performed in 0.4 M KI and 8 mM sodium sulphite at a measurement temperature of 20°C. The phosphorescence intensity was measured at 515 nm exciting at 308 nm. Phosphorescence was easily and rapidly obtained, showing a linear concentration range between 0 and 25 ng mL−1 with a detection limit of 95 ng L−1. The method has been successfully applied to the analysis of fuberidazole in water. Keywords: Pesticide analysisFuberidazoleHeavy atom inducedRoom temperature phosphorescenceWater Acknowledgement The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología, Spain (Projects PPQ2000-1291-C02-01 and MAT2003-09074-C02-01), the grant support from Fundación CAJAMAR, Spain and the financial support of a work contract from the Junta de Andalucía (Ayuda para el Perfeccionamiento de Doctores en Universidades Fuera de Andalucía).