Development of nanostructured electrodes for determination of agrotoxic residues in honey

Abstract

The increasing use of pesticides and herbicides in farming leads to an increase in the contamination of fauna and flora. An example is the bees contamination by pesticides and herbicides, which entails to the mortality of these animals, indispensable for the proliferation of plants. An indication of this contamination in bees is the presence of these species or sub products in honey, which can be detected by the use of electrochemical techniques. The present proposal has as main focus the development of electrochemical sensors based on electrodes modified with conductive composite films in the determination of contaminants in bee honey. For the production of these films, beeswax and conductive carbonaceous materials will be used, in which the beeswax will have as purpose the agglutination and immobilization of the conductive material on the surface of the base electrode. The carbon-based conductive materials used will be carbon black, carbon nanotubes and graphene, in which the characteristics of each material will be exploited in order to obtain a sensor with high sensitivity, robustness, low cost and sustainability. (AU)