Determination of zineb in tap water and tomato samples by adsorptive catalytic stripping voltammetry

This paper describes a sensitive and accurate adsorptive catalytic stripping voltammetric method for the determination of zineb (zinc ethylene-bis- dithiocarbamate) in tap water and tomato samples. The method is based on the reduction of adsorbed zineb at a hanging mercury drop electrode following its catalytic oxidation using peroxydisulfate as an oxidizing reagent. Chemical and instrumental parameters of the process were optimized. The catalytic mechanism of the reduction of zineb is discussed as well. The limits of detection (3 s) and quantification (10 s) and linear range of the method for accumulation time of 60 s were calculated as 8.1 nM, 28 nM, and 0.028--7.00 mu M, respectively. The relative standard deviation of the method was 3.68% for 2.5 mu M zineb (N = 5). The proposed method was applied successfully for the determination of zineb in tap water and tomato samples.