Near infrared determination of Diuron in pesticide formulations

A simple, fast and environmentally friendly near infrared (NIR)-based methodology was developed for Diuron determination in pesticide formulations. This methodology was based on the pesticide extraction with acetonitrile and subsequent transmittance measurement determination by peak area measurement between 2021 and 2047 nm, corrected with a single point baseline established at 2071 nm. The repeatability, as relative standard deviation of five independent analysis of a 15.3 mg g−1 Diuron standard was 0.03% and the limit of detection 0.013 mg g−1. The reagent consumption was clearly reduced in front of a chromatographic reference procedure from 39.1 ml acetonitrile per sample, required by liquid chromatography (LC), to 1 ml of acetonitrile consumed for NIR. The sample measurement throughput obtained by the NIR methodology was 120 h−1, 10 times higher than that obtained by LC (12 h−1). It can be concluded that the proposed vibrational method is appropriate for the quality control of pesticide commercial formulations.