A flow injection potentiometric method for the rapid determination of paraq
uat in herbicide formulations and biological samples is described. It is ba
sed on the utilization of a flow-through potentiometric detector containing
polyvinyl chloride-immobilised octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane, a lipophilic
plasticizer (tetra-n-undecyl 3,3',4,4'-benzophenone tetracarboxylate) and m
embrane additive potassium tetrakis(4-chlorophenyl)borate. The detector was
minimally interfered by the presence of constituents such as Na+, K+, Ca2, Mg2+, glucose, urea, lactic and citric acids at physiological levels, res
pectively. Good correlation between results of the proposed method and HPLC
for the formulation samples was found, while results for the determination
of paraquat in biological samples such as urine, vomitus and stomach washo
ut was less satisfactory. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserve
d.