Electrochemical detection of parathion at a glassy-carbon electrode modified with hexadecane

A modified electrode, based on a hexadecane (C16)-coated glassy-carbon electrode (GCE) has been developed for the determination of parathion. The electrochemical behavior of parathion was investigated by cyclic voltammetry (CV). The peak potential and peak current were found to depend on the supporting electrolyte and the pH of the buffer solution. The reduction currents for parathion were proportional to parathion concentration over the range 8×10–8–2×10–5 mol L–1. The detection limit was 2×10–8 mol L–1 parathion for an accumulation time of 30 s. The effects of organic and inorganic species on the determination of parathion were also studied. A procedure was developed to extract parathion from spiked soil samples using a mixture of dichloromethane and acetone as the extraction solvent. The complete extraction and analytical procedure are simple, inexpensive and rapid. Parathion was determined in a soil sample by use of linear scan voltammetry (LSV).