Determination of thiabendazole residues in waters by solid-phase spectrofluorometry

A new, sensitive and simple spectrofluorometric method for the determination of thiabendazole (TBZ) residues was studied. TBZ on Sephadex G-15 gel, pH 4.70 acetate buffer, is fixed to give fluorescence. The fluorescence of the gel-TBZ system, packed in a 1-mm quartz cell was measured directly using a solid-surface attachment. The applicable concentration range was 1.5-10.0 ng.mL-1 with a relative standard deviation of 1.4% and a detection limit of 0.1 ng.mL-1. The method was applied to the determination of thiabendazole in natural, waste, sea, and residual waters (98-100% recovery). The method is more sensitive and selective than other methods described in the literature. The presence of other fluorescent pesticides (dichlone, carbaryl, morestan, o-phenylphenol) with similar spectral features (lambda exc and lambda em neighboring to excitation and emission wavelengths of the TBZ) did not cause interference.