Imipramine sensing in pharmaceutical formulations using boron-doped diamond electrode

Abstract

This paper describes the development of an electroanalytical procedure proposal for the determination of tricyclic antidepressant imipramine (IMP) in commercial pharmaceutical formulations using boron-doped diamond electrode and square-wave voltammetry. The electrochemical oxidation of imipramine was studied in 0.04 mol L−1 Britton-Robinson buffer solution. The voltammetric results showed two well-defined oxidation peaks with potentials of 0.04 V and 0.82 V vs. Ag/AgCl/3 mol L−1 Cl− for peaks 1 and 2, respectively. The effect of the experimental and voltammetric parameters was evaluated and the best performance was obtained in pH 7.4, pulses application frequency of potential of 100 Hz, amplitude of 50 mV and potential increment of 2 mV. Under these conditions, the analytical curves were obtained in the linear range of concentration from 1.73 × 10−7 mol L−1 to 2.53 × 10−6 mol L−1 (r = 0.9984), with detection and quantitation limits 4.35 × 10−8 mol L−1 and 1.45 × 10−7 mol L−1, respectively. The proposed method was applied with success in the determination of IMP in commercial pharmaceutical formulations and validated by comparison with standard method for determination of imipramine. The obtained results were in close agreement, at a 95% confidence level, with those obtained using an official method of the British Pharmacopeia.