Preconcentration and voltammetric determination of the herbicide metamitron with a silica-modified carbon paste electrode

A carbon paste electrode incorporating silica (Si-MCPE) was fabricated to accumulate Metamitron at the electrode surface. Several electroanalytical techniques were used to explore its reductive behaviour. The results indicate that the system is irreversible and fundamentally controlled by adsorption. The adsorptive stripping response has been evaluated with respect to accumulation time, deposition potential, scan rate, pH and other variables, using differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) and square wave voltammetry (SWV) as redissolution techniques. In both cases a voltammetric peak is obtained, at –0.542 V (DPV) and –0.421 V (SWV) in Britton-Robinson buffer (pH 1.9). The detection limits were 3.66 × 10^–1 M and 4.22 × 10^–9 M for AdS-DPV and AdS-SWV, respectively. Under optimum conditions the Metamitron reduction peak gave two linear regions in the range from 4.0 × 10^–9 M to 8.0 × 10^–8 M by means of AdS-DPV, with a coefficient of variation of 2.19% (n = 10) for 1 × 10^–8 M herbicide solution. A method was developed for determination of Metamitron in soils, with a recovery of 98.8% and a coefficient of variation of 5.26% (0.01 g/g of soil).