Carbonaceous materials in sample treatment techniques in the determination of pesticides in food and environmental analysis. A review

ABSTRACT

The use of pesticides in the agricultural industry has been a recurrent practice for decades. Their inappropriate use causes residues of these compounds that can damage both environment and human health. Their analysis is crucial to determine their effects in the environment, while the food industry guarantees consumer safety. The composition of the analytical matrix is a critical factor to determine the viability of the selection and application of specific sample treatment techniques. The selection of an adequate sample treatment technique is necessary to remove interferences, minimising analyte loss, sample manipulation, allowing an adequate separation, extraction, isolation and pre-concentration. The present manuscript summarises the use of carbonaceous materials in synthesis, characterisation, theoretical studies, and their application to several sample pretreatment techniques coupled with instrumental techniques in the determination of pesticides on environmental, food and water samples. The incorporation of carbonaceous materials during the synthesis and development of new adsorbents provides specific interactions (pesticide-adsorbents) that improve the recognition properties, allowing innumerable advantages in terms of cost, performance, selectivity and analytical sensitivity in comparison with other adsorbents.

KEYWORDS:

• Pesticides
• carbonaceous materials
• analytical techniques
• sample treatment
• food and environmental samples

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Programa para el Desarrollo Profesional Docente, para el Tipo Superior (PRODEP), Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia (CONACyT) (SNI distinction as research membership and scholarships), for their financial support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).