New reagents for the facile and sensitive spectrophotometric determination of carbofuran in its formulations and environmental samples

Abstract

Facile and sensitive spectrophotometric methods were developed for the determination of carbofuran in its formulations and environmental samples by using new reagents. The methods were based on the coupling reaction of hydrolysed product of cabofuran with diazotized reagents, namely, 2,6-dibromo-4-methylaniline, 2,6-dibromo-4-nitroaniline, and 2,4,6-tribromoaniline in basic medium to give color derivatives having the absorption maximum at 468, 474, and 410 nm, respectively. The color derivatives were correspondingly stable for 40, 30, and 16 h. Beer’s law was obeyed in the carbofuran concentration range 0.2–10.0 µg/mL. The proposed methods have been found to be applicable to the determination of carbofuran in its formulations, tap and distilled water, grains, polluted water, plant material (cabbage), and soil samples.