Voltammetric detection of paraquat pesticide on a phthalocyanine-based pyrolitic graphite electrode

This work describes the application of an ordinary pyrolitic graphite electrode modified by metallophthalocyanine allied to square wave voltammetry for the study of the electrochemical behavior of the herbicide paraquat and the development of a method for its analytical determination in natural water samples. Preliminary experiments indicated that the best responses, considering the intensities of the current and voltammetric profile for the paraquat reduction process, were obtained when the electrode modified by cobalt phthalocyanine was employed, which had a better catalytic activity as a result of this modification compared with that for an unmodified electrode and electrodes modified by iron, manganese and the acid form of the phthalocyanines. Studies of the concentration of cobalt phthalocyanine and the adsorption time showed that 1.0 × 10⁻⁴ mol L⁻¹ cobalt phthalocyanine with an adsorption time of 10 min was sufficient to obtain reliability and stability of modification for employment in the development of the electroanalytical procedure for paraquat determination in natural water samples. The variation in pH of a 0.10 mol L⁻¹ Britton–Robinson buffer solution and the square wave parameters indicated that the best conditions to reduce paraquat were pH 7.0, a frequency of 100 s⁻¹, a scan increment of 2 mV and a square wave amplitude of 50 mV. Under such conditions, the variation of paraquat concentrations from 5.00 × 10⁻⁷ to 2.91 × 10⁻⁵ mol L⁻¹ showed a linear relation, with detection and quantification limits of 26.53 and 88.23 μg L⁻¹; those values were lower than the maximum limits for drinking water permitted by the Brazilian Environmental Council (100 μg L⁻¹), indicating that the method could be employed to analyze paraquat in drinking water samples.