Photolysis of imidacloprid in aqueous solution

The photolysis of the insecticide imidacloprid in aqueous solution has been examined. Irradiation at 290 nm resulted in 90 % substrate transformation in 4 h. The degradation approximately followed first order kinetics; the rate constant is 1.6 × 10−4s−1 and half-life 1.2 h. 6-Chloronicotinaldehyde, N-methylnicotinacidamide, 1-(6-chloronicotinyl)imidazolidone and 6-chloro-3-pyridyl-methylethylendiamine were the main photoproducts identified by CG-MS analysis.