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World Journal of Chemical Education. 2021, 9(4), 152-162
DOI: 10.12691/WJCE-9-4-8
Special Issue

Rapid and Sensitive Electrochemical, Spectroscopic and Spectroelectrochemical Detection of Glyphosate and Glufosinate and Their Copper Salts with Screen-printed Electrodes

F. Wetzel1, T. Braun1, T. Schindler1 and A. Habekost1,

1Department of Chemistry, University of Education Ludwigsburg, Reuteallee 46, 71634 Ludwigsburg, Germany

Pub. Date: November 28, 2021
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Photoprocesses in Chemical Education)
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F. Wetzel, T. Braun, T. Schindler and A. Habekost. Rapid and Sensitive Electrochemical, Spectroscopic and Spectroelectrochemical Detection of Glyphosate and Glufosinate and Their Copper Salts with Screen-printed Electrodes. World Journal of Chemical Education. 2021; 9(4):152-162. doi: 10.12691/WJCE-9-4-8

Abstract

N-(Phosphonomethyl)glycine (glyphosate), known by the trade name Roundup®, is a broad-spectrum systemic herbicide used to kill various types of weeds. It was first synthesized in 1970 by John E. Franz, a chemist at the Monsanto agrochemical company. Glyphosate's mode of action is to inhibit a plant enzyme involved in the synthesis of some aromatic amino acids (“shikimate way”). The use of Roundup® is currently controversial, as its hazard potential has not been clarified. Glufosinate (2-Amino-4-[hydroxy(methylphosphonoyl)] butanoic acid) was discovered by German and Japanese scientists in a biological process: Species of Streptomyces bacteria produce a tripeptide that consists of two alanine residues and an amino acid that is an analogue of glutamate named phosphinothricin. Phosphinothricin was first synthesized by scientists at Hoechst (now Aventis) in the 1970s as a racemic mixture; this racemic mixture is called glufosinate. This article presents reliable and easily performed spectroscopic and (spectro)electrochemical measurements for identifying glyphosate and glufosinate.

Keywords

electrogenerated chemiluminescence, screen-printed electrodes, nano-ZnO decorated screen-printed electrodes, derivatization

Copyright

Creative CommonsThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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