A comparison of different methods to remove dissolved oxygen: Application to the electrochemical determination of imidacloprid

Abstract

This study compares different methods for the removal of oxygen from the solution prior to the chronopotentiometric determination of the insecticide imidacloprid on glassy carbon electrode. The research included the application of the chemical method involving addition of sulfite ion, and the physical method of purging the sample with nitrogen stream, as well as their combination. By comparing analytical signals of imidacloprid, chemical method showed almost the same efficiency as conventional physical method, while the best reproducibility was achieved by applying chemical method with addition of the saturated sodium sulfite solution. The method is very simple and can be applied for deoxygenation of the solution prior to the chronopotentiometric analysis. The application of the chemical deoxygenation significantly shortened duration of the chronopotentiometric analysis of imidacloprid from approximately 15 min to 1 min.