Monitoring of Glyphosate in aquatic media based on diffusive gradients in thin films technique - DGT

• Grant number: 22/16780-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: April 01, 2023
• End date: March 31, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Chemistry
• Principal Investigator: Paulo Sergio Tonello
• Grantee: Giovana Rocha de Oliveira
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciência e Tecnologia. Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Sorocaba. Sorocaba , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Each year, the trade in pesticides has been developing alongside agriculture. However, changes such as the advancement of the cultivation of transgenic plants, further disseminated the use of herbicides, such as glyphosate, thanks to its effectiveness against weeds. Although the use of the glyphosate herbicide is constantly growing, its studies on the possible impacts and mitigating measures are outdated, and the development of research is extremely important, so that its use is carried out in a correct and controlled manner. Its impacts on the environment, especially on aquatic environments, are extremely important for the preservation of water sources, one of the sustainable development goals proposed at the UN conference in 2015. In order to achieve this objective, monitor these environments in relation to presence of glyphosate becomes imperative and techniques that manage to accomplish this task, in a simple and efficient way, are paramount. In this context, the technique of diffusion in thin films by concentration gradient (DGT) has been presented as a good tool for monitoring several pollutants and in this work it will be evaluated regarding its potential to quantify in situ the agent glyphosate, in aquatic environments , using a new proposal: the biopolymer Chitosan will be used as binding agent and the agarose gel 1.5% w/v will be used as diffusive medium. This is an unprecedented proposal since the DGT technique equipped with these gels has never been used to quantify glyphosate in aquatic or terrestrial environments and its advantages are the ease of acquisition of materials, both in terms of abundance and cost, and the ease of use. manufacture of gels Thus, it is expected that the results will help to monitor this compound in the environment in a simpler and more sustainable way.