Charge-transfer complex–based spectrophotometric method for the determination of mesotrione in environmental samples

A simple, accurate, sensitive, and selective spectrophotometric method has been developed for the determination of mesotrione. This method is based on the reaction of mesotrione with Fe(III) to form a charge transfer metal complex having λ max at 348 nm. Beer’s law was obeyed in the concentration range of 0.2–10.0 µg mL −1 with limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) equal to 0.053 and 0.162 µg mL −1 , respectively. The percent recovery of mesotrione from different environmental and agricultural samples was found to be 95.00–106.50% at various levels. Notably, the developed method was successfully employed for the determination of mesotrione in environmental (pond water, canal water, tap water, and soil) and agricultural (maize grains) samples. Graphical abstract