This paper describes prototypes of an on-site early warning water quality monitoring system (EWWQMS) for pesticide quantification in natural waters by fluorescence and absorbance. As many pesticides are not naturally fluorescent, this EWWQMS uses UV irradiation to transform these compounds into highly fluorescent photoproducts and obtain sufficient sensitivity. To obtain a better specificity, the system uses four UV LEDs at different wavelengths to excite the fluorescent photoproducts. For pesticides that are not sensitive to photoconversion, the EWWQMS prototypes also use UV absorption for their quantification, thus offering a wider application range. A first system uses a diode array spectrometer for detection. A second system uses a higher resolution spectrometer and an intensified CCD camera detection to increase sensitivity. Analytical applications were conducted for the determination of fipronil, acetamipride, cyprodinil, trifluraline and pendimethaline in water using both the EWWQMS prototypes. The analytical performances of these new systems are good compared with other photo-induced fluorescence methods already published. Limits of detection without pre-concentration are in the range of 0.2 to 3 ng mL-1 and the recovery values range from 95 to 108%. These results show that the EWWQMS prototypes can be used as an alert system to protect industrial plants from pesticide contaminations that exceed the capabilities of their cleaning processes.
Keywords: Absorbance; Environment; Fluorescence; Monitoring; Pesticides; Photo-induced fluorescence.