Flow injection analysis with on-line nylon powder extraction for room-temperature phosphorescence determination of thiabendazole Original Research Article

A fast and very selective flow-through phosphorescence optosensor was designed and characterized for the determination of the fungicide thiabendazole in water samples. For the first time, thiabendazole was determined using a flow-through optosensor based on the phosphorescence signals obtained when it is retained in a solid support. While thiabendazole does not phosphoresce in packing materials commonly used to fill the flow-cell, significant emission signals are observed when it is retained on nylon powder in the presence of iodide and sulfite. The experimental set-up was based on a flow-injection manifold coupled to an on-line phosphorescence detector containing nylon powder packed in a conventional flow-cell. Potassium iodide and sodium sulfite were added to sample aliquots to improve the thiabendazole phosphorescence and injected in the flow manifold using water as carrier. After the phosphorescence emission was registered, the analyte was eluted from the packed nylon with a 65% (v/v) methanol–water mixture. Optimal instrumentation, experimental and flow conditions were evaluated. Using a sample volume of 2000 μL, the analytical signal showed a very good linearity in the range 12.9–110 ng mL−1, with a detection limit of 4.5 ng mL−1, and a sample throughput of about 14 samples per hour. The effects of the presence of concomitant species in the thiabendazole phosphorescence signal were studied, and a comparison with the fluorescence nylon-powder optosensor was carried out and discussed. Finally, the applicability of the proposed optosensor was tested in water samples, and satisfactory recoveries ranging between 97% and 105% were obtained.