Electrochemical detection of imidacloprid using antimony film Electrodes: A chemometric approach

The excessive use of insecticides in agriculture has resulted in the contamination of surface water bodies. For this reason, the objective of this study is the electrochemical detection of the insecticide Imidacloprid (IMD) using square wave voltammetry (SWV) as the technique. The IMD detection process involved the modification of the glassy carbon electrode (GCE) with an antimony film (SbFE), and optimization was carried out using the response surface methodology (RSM) with a Box-Behnken design (BBD) combined with a desirability function (DF) for both the considered chemical variables and the instrumental variables of SWV. The optimization process analyzed the peak current (ip) and peak current standard deviation (SD ip) as dependent variables. With the optimized parameters, a calibration curve was obtained, and the linear range was established between (0.9 to 5.0) × 10−5 mol/L with a detection limit of 7.4 × 10−6 mol/L. The optimized methodologies were applied to detect IMD in natural water samples obtained in the province of Córdoba, Argentina, showing recovery values between 95 and 106 %. Additionally, the quantification of IMD in a mixture was carried out.