A simple selective and sensitive catalytic kinetic spectrophotometric method for the determination of trace amount of organophosphorus pesticides has been proposed. The method is based on the catalytic effect of organophosphorus pesticides (malathion, dimethoate and phorate) on the oxidation of LCV (leuco crystal violet) by potassium iodate in hydrochloric acid medium to give a violet colored dye. The dye shows maximum absorption at 592 nm. The fixed-time method was used for 15 min. The system obeys Beer’s law in the range of 0.02-0.2, 0.032-0.32 and 0.03-0.3 µg mL-1, for malathion, dimethoate, and phorate, respectively. Important analytical parameters such as time, temperature, reagent concentration, acidity etc, have been optimized for complete color reaction. Sandell’s sensitivity and molar absorptivity for the system were found to be 0.0002, 0.0004, 0.0004 µg cm-2 and 1.2 × 10(6), 5.21 × 10(5), 6.3 × 10(5) L mol-1cm-1, respectively. The proposed method was satisfactorily applied to micro-level determination of organophosphorus pesticides in vegetable samples.
organophosphorus pesticides; potassium iodate; leuco crystal violet; spectrophotometry; vegetables
