Two-Dimensional UV Absorption Correlation Spectroscopy as a Method for the Detection of Thiamethoxam Residue in Tea

Abstract

Two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy (2D-COS) combined with UV absorption spectroscopy was evaluated as a technique for the identification of spectral regions associated with the residues of thiamethoxam in tea. There is only one absorption peak at 275 nm in the absorption spectrum of a mixture of thiamethoxam and tea, which is the absorption peak of tea. Based on 2D-COS, the absorption peak of thiamethoxam at 250 nm is extracted from the UV spectra of the mixture. To determine the residue of thiamethoxam in tea, 250 nm is selected as the measured wavelength, at which the fitting result is as follows: the residual sum of squares is 0.01375, standard deviation R2 is 0.99068, and F value is 426. Statistical analysis shows that there is a significant linear relationship between the concentration of thiamethoxam in tea and the absorbance at 250 nm in the UV spectra of the mixture. Moreover, the average prediction error is 0.0033 and the prediction variance is 0.1654, indicating good predictive result. Thus, the UV absorption spectrum can be used as a measurement method for rapid detection of thiamethoxam residues in tea.