Please cite this article as: L.Rubio, M.C.Ortiz, L.A.Sarabia, Identification and quantification of carbamate pesticides in dried lime tree flowers by means of excitationemission molecular fluorescence and parallel factor analysis when quenching effect exists, Analytica Chimica Acta http://dx.doi.org/10. 1016/j.aca.2014.02.008 This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. HighlightsHIGHLIGHTS ► Determination of carbamate pesticides in dried lime tree flowers by EEM and PARAFAC ► Quenching effect and overlapping spectra are solved by three way techniques ► The second order property of PARAFAC decomposition is useful to solve problems in EEM ► Using PARAFAC to select the adequate dilution that minimizes the quenching effect ► A procedure to choose a D-optimal design for a multi-analyte standard addition method Abstract A non-separative, fast and inexpensive spectrofluorimetric method based on the second order calibration of excitation-emission fluorescence matrices (EEMs) was proposed for the determination of carbaryl, carbendazim and 1-naphthol in dried lime tree flowers. The trilinearity property of three-way data was used to handle the intrinsic fluorescence of lime flowers and the difference in the fluorescence intensity of each analyte. It also made possible to identify unequivocally each analyte. Trilinearity of the data tensor guarantees the uniqueness of the solution obtained through parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC), so the factors of the decomposition match up with the analytes. In addition, an experimental procedure was proposed to identify, with three-way data, the quenching effect produced by Page 2 of 40 A c c e p t e d M a n u s c r i p t 2/4 the fluorophores of the lime flowers. This procedure also enabled the selection of the adequate dilution of the lime flowers extract to minimize the quenching effect so the three analytes can be quantified. Finally, the analytes were determined using the standard addition method for a calibration whose standards were chosen with a D-optimal design.The three analytes were unequivocally identified by the correlation between the pure spectra and the PARAFAC excitation and emission spectral loadings. The trueness was established by the accuracy line "calculated concentration versus added concentration" in all cases.