Abstract
Pulsed voltammetry has been used to detect and quantify glyphosate on buffered water in presence of
ammonium nitrate and humic substances. Glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide active
ingredient in the world. It is a non-selective broad spectrum herbicide but some of its health and
environmental effects are still being discussed. Nowadays, glyphosate pollution in water is being
monitored but quantification techniques are slow and expensive. Glyphosate wastes are often detected
in countryside water bodies where organic substances and fertilizers (commonly based on ammonium
nitrate) may also be present. Glyphosate also forms complexes with humic acids so these compounds
have also been taken into consideration. The objective of this research is to study the interference of
these common pollutants in glyphosate measurements by pulsed voltammetry. The statistical treatment
of the voltammetric data obtained lets us discriminate glyphosate from the other studied compounds
and a mathematical model has been built to quantify glyphosate concentrations in a buffer despite the
presence of humic substances and ammonium nitrate. In this model, the coefficient of determination (R2
)
is 0.977 and the RMSEP value is 2.9610−5 so the model is considered statistically valid.