Electrochemical sensor for discrimination of carbamates and organophosphorus pesticides

Abstract

Pesticides are chemicals used to eliminate and/or protect crops from pest infestations. Carbamates and organophosphorus are two of the most common classes of pesticides used worldwide. Although these compounds increase the quantity and quality of the foods, their excessive use could cause health problems for animals and humans. In this work were extracted electrochemical information from seven pesticides, four carbamates (propoxur, carbaryl, carbofuran and isoprocarb) and three organophosphorus (fenitrothion, parathion and methyl-parathion). The electrochemical information was recorded by cyclic voltammetry technique using a glassy carbon as working electrode. The current signals obtained from the pesticides were used as input data to perform the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA). A satisfactory discrimination was verified by the score plot obtained by PCA and no misclassification between the two classes of pesticides was observed.