Photochemically-Induced Fluorescence Properties of Two Benzoyl- and Phenylurea Pesticides and Determination in Natural Waters

A photo-induced fluorescence (PIF) method was developed for the determination of two benzoyl- and phenylurea pesticides, namely diflubenzuron (DFB) and fenuron (FEN). The photoconversion under UV irradiation of both pesticides into strongly fluorescent photoproducts was performed in several media (methanol, ethanol, acetonitrile, pH4 aqueous solution and pH4 water–methanol (30:70, v/v ) mixture). PIF parameters were optimized. Analytical figures of merit for the PIF determination of DFB and FEN were satisfactory, with rather wide linear dynamic range (LDR) values of one to two orders of magnitude, relatively low limit of detection (LOD) values of, respectively, 9–24 ng/mL for DFB and 1–28 ng/mL for FEN, and limit of quantification (LOQ) values of, respectively, 30–80 ng/mL for DFB and 4–95 ng/mL for FEN, according to the medium. Relative standard deviation (RSD) values were in the range 1.7–5.6 %. PIF was validated by comparing its analytical performances to those of a standard UV absorption spectrophotometric method. The optimized PIF method was applied to the quantitative analysis of both pesticides in various spiked natural water samples collected in a Senegal agricultural area by the standard addition procedure prior to extraction steps in dichloromethane, with satisfactory mean recovery percentage values (97.0–105.3 for DFB and 98.3–102.8 % for FEN). An interference study of foreign species, including pesticides and inorganic ions, likely to be present in natural waters, was also carried out.