Available online at www.derpharmachemica.com Scholars Research Library Der Pharma Chemica, 2012, 4 (1):297-310 (http://derpharmachemica.com/archive.html) ISSN 0975-413X CODEN (USA): PCHHAX 297 www.scholarsresearchlibrary.com Detoxification of Bupirimate Pesticide in Aqueous Solutions by Electrochemical Oxidation. M. Errami 1,2 , O. ID El Mouden 1,2 , R. Salghi 1* , M. Zougagh 3,4 , A. Zarrouk 5 , B. Hammouti 5 , A. Chakir 2 , S.S. Al-Deyab 6 , M. Bouri 1,3 1 Equipe Génie de l’Environnement et de Biotechnologie, Ecole Nationale des Sciences Appliquées, Université Ibn Zohr, B.P 1136 Agadir, Maroc 2 GSMA UMR CNRS 6089, Laboratoire de Chimie-Physique, Faculté des Sciences, Université de Reims, UMR 6089, BP 1039, France 3 Regional Institute for Applied Science Research, IRICA, E-13004 Ciudad Real, Spain 4 Scientific and Technological Park of Albacete, E-02006 Albacete, Spain 5 LCAE-URAC18, Faculté des Sciences, Université Mohammed Premier, BP 4808, Oujda, Morocco 6 Petrochemical Research Chair, Chemistry Department, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabi ______________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT The commercial bupirimate pesticide (5-butyl-2-(ethylamino)-6-methyl-4-pyrimidinyl dimethyl sulfamate) is widely used for crop production and fruit tree treatment, but this disposal cause serious environmental problems. This work presents an electrochemical oxidative removal of this pesticide by an electrolysis system on a boron-doped diamond (BDD) anode and platinum cathode. A number of experiments were run and the results are presented. The achieved reductions were 74% and 52% for 2% NaCl and 3% NaCl respectively. The chemical oxygen demand (COD) of bupirimate solution was observed to fall with pseudo first-order kinetics. As a conclusion, electrochemical oxidation could be used as a pretreatment stage for detoxification of toxic wastes with bupirimate. keywords: Bupirimate; boron doped diamond electrode; electrochemical oxidation. ______________________________________________________________________________ INTRODUCTION The disposal of pesticide-containing waste is a problem of worldwide concern, with almost every stage of pesticide use involving the formation of wastes [1], which can contain substances that