Simultaneous determination of chlorpyrifos and carbaryl by differential degradation using diode-array spectrophotometry optimized by partial least squares

Abstract

A method for the simultaneous determination of chlorpyrifos and carbaryl, based on the differential degradation processes of both pesticides in an alkaline-oxidative medium, is described. The statistical parameters obtained by the application of partial least-squares (PLS) methods at different reaction times were analysed, from which the optimum reaction time for the simultaneous determination of both pesticides was selected. The optimized matrices, obtained by using PLS-2 and PLS-1 methods, were applied to the resolution of both pesticides in artificial samples and in a commercial formulation.