Electrochemical reduction behaviour of the synthetic pyrethroid insecticide cyfluthrin and its determination in formulations and environmental samples

Abstract

The polarographic behaviour of cyfluthrin (CY), an α-cynoester pyrethroid, was studied using a dropping mercury electrode and hanging mercury drop electrode in methanolic Britton–Robinson (B–R) buffer of pH 2.0–12.0 with different ionic media. The nature of the electrode process was examined, the number of electrons was evaluated, and the reduction mechanism was proposed. Quantitative determination was achieved in the concentration range of 6.0 × 10−8 to 1.15 × 10−5 mol dm−3 using a differential pulse polarographic method with a lower detection limit of 2.4 × 10−8 mol dm−3. The proposed method was successfully applied in the determination of CY in formulations, grains, soils, and spiked water samples.