| Abstract: | A new and highly sensitive spectophotometric method is developed for the determination of parts per million levels of widely used organophosphorus pesticide monocrotophos. The method is based on alkaline hydrolysis of monocrotophos to N‐methylacetoacetamide followed by coupling with diazotized p‐amino acetophenone in alkaline medium. The absorption maxima of the reddish‐violet coloured compound formed is measured at 560 nm. Beer's law is obeyed over the concentration range of 1.2 to 6.8 μg in a final solution volume of 25 mL. The molar absorptivity and Sandell's sensitivity were found to be 7.1 × 105 (±100) L mole?1 cm?1 and 0.008 μg cm?2, respectively. The standard deviation and relative standard deviation were found to be ± 0.005 and 2.05%, respectively. The method is simple, sensitive and free from interferences of other pesticides and diverse ions. The method has been satisfactorily applied to the determination of monocrotophos in environmental, agricultural and biological samples. |
