This work describes the development of electrochemical sensors using screen-printed carbon electrodes (SPCEs) for the determination of the pesticide diuron. Two different electrochemical techniques, namely differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) and square wave voltammetry (SWV), have been tested.
Bare SPCEs have been successfully applied to the determination of this compound, being the developed sensors characterized in terms of capability of detection and reproducibility. The capability of detection value obtained was 6.9 ± 0.5 μM. In the case of reproducibility a value of 8.0% was obtained when using DPV.
Modified SPCEs by means of metallic gold nanoparticles (AuNPs/SPCEs) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs/SPCEs) were also tested in order to improve the performance of the developed method. These modification processes did not lead to a substantial improvement of the sensitivity of the method.
DPV was the selected technique for the analysis of diuron in real samples. In this way, the developed electrochemical systems were successfully applied in the determination of diuron in tap, river and sea water samples.
