Photoinduced chemiluminescence determination of carbamate pesticides

A liquid chromatography method with post-column photoinduced chemiluminescence (PICL) detection is proposed for the simultaneous determination of eight carbamate pesticides, namely aldicarb, butocarboxim, ethiofencarb, methomyl, methiocarb, thiodicarb, thiofanox and thiophanate-methyl. After chromatographic separation, quinine (sensitizer) was incorporated and the flow passed through an UV lamp (67 s of irradiation time) to obtain the photoproducts, which reacted with acidic Ce(IV) and provided a CL emission. The PICL method showed great selectivity for carbamate pesticides containing sulphur in their chemical structure. A solid-phase extraction process increased sensitivity (LODs ranging from 0.06 to 0.27 ng mL−1) and allowed the carbamate pesticides in surface and ground water samples to be determined, with recoveries in the range 87–110% (except for thiophanate-methyl, whose recoveries were between 60 and 75%). The intra- and inter-day precision was evaluated, with RSD ranging from 1.1 to 7.5% and from 2.6 to 12.3%, respectively. A discussion about the PICL mechanism is also included.