Determination of four kinds of carbamate pesticides by capillary zone electrophoresis with amperometric detection at a polyamide-modified carbon paste electrode

In this paper, a polyamide-modified carbon paste electrode in capillary zone electrophoresis with amperometric detection (CZE–AD) was firstly applied to the determination of four carbamate pesticides: fenobucarb, isoprocarb, metolcarb and carbaryl. The four carbamates were hydrolyzed in alkalescent aqueous solutions, resulting in the formation of 2-sec-butylphenol, 2-isopropylphenol, m-cresol and α-naphthol, which could be determined by amperometry after capillary electrophoretic separation. Under the selected optimum conditions, the four analytes could be perfectly separated within 23 min. The linear ranges of 2-sec-butylphenol, 2-isopropylphenol and m-cresol were from 1.0 × 10−7 to 2.0 × 10−5 mol L−1 and that of α-naphthol was from 2.0 × 10−7 to 2.0 × 10−5 mol L−1 and their detection limits were 3.0 × 10−8, 3.0 × 10−8, 3.0 × 10−8 and 6.0 × 10−8 mol L−1, respectively (S/N = 3). Fenobucarb, isoprocarb, metolcarb and carbaryl can be indirectly determined by this CZE–AD method with recovery of 105, 104, 110 and 98% and R.S.D. of 4, 3, 4 and 3%, respectively. Above results demonstrated that this method was of high sensitivity, good repeatability and could be used in the rapid determination of the pesticide residues.