Stopped flow kinetic-spectrophotometric determination of Diquat in waters

Using the measures of initial reaction rate, a kinetic-photometric method is developed that uses the reaction of Diquat with H2O2 in basic medium. The reaction rate is very high and therefore the stopped-flow mixing technique is required in order to make kinetic measurements. The reaction rate is obtained in 20 s after the reactants are mixed and it allows the simple application of the method proposed to the routine analyses. The sensitivity of the method is very high being the detection limit 0.44 microgmL(-1) and the application range between 1 and 16 microgmL(-1). The time of measure per sample is 90s. The proposed kinetic-photometric method has been applied to the direct determination of this compound in river water, in the water of laundry of the olives, and in a commercial product. The results are very acceptable.