Pesticide Analysis by Flow Injection Immunoanalysis: A Comparison of Different Detection Methods (Photometry, Fluorimetry, Luminometry and Electrochemistry)

Abstract

This chapter describes pesticide analysis by flow injection immunoanalysis : a comparison of different detection method. Immunochemical methods are sensitive, specific and precise, providing for rapid, cost-effective analyses. Water samples, in general, require no clean-up or enrichment prior to the immunochemical analysis. A flow injection system was developed on the basis of an antibody column reactor, enabling an automatic control of the status of water contamination by special pesticides. A comparison of the fluorimetric detection used as the standard principle with photometric and electrochemical detection, and measurement of luminescence using analyte labeled with peroxidase and/or alkaline phosphatase is presented. A focus of research was on an extensive characterization of important assay parameters as the detection limit, the measuring range, standard deviation, precision, and accuracy of the applied test. All detection principles investigated were compared analyzing a series of environmental water samples with the optimized flow injection system for each detection principle. The results obtained are discussed and compared with GC/MS and HPLC analyses, respectively.