A new method for the determination of loratadine at an Au microelectrode in flowing systems with the use of fast continuous cyclic voltammetry

Abstract

This research presents a new method for the fast monitoring of loratadine in pharmaceutical formulation. The method employs the fast Fourier transformation continuous cyclic voltammetry (FFTCV) at a gold microelectrode in a flowing-solution system. Three considerable advantages of the technique are demonstrated. First, there is not any requirement for the oxygen removal from the test solution; second, a subnanomolar detection limit is gained; and, finally, the speed of the method for the determination of a compound is in a broad range of chromatographic methods. A special computer-based numerical method is also introduced for the calculation of the analyte signal and noise reduction. The electrode response was calculated in accordance with the partial and total charge exchanges on the electrode surface after the background current subtraction from that of the noise. The integration range of the currents was set for all potential scan ranges, including the oxidation and reduction of the Au surface electrode in order to obtain a sensitive determination. The objective of the performed experiments was to study the effects of different parameters on the method sensitivity. It was concluded that the method had a linear concentration range of 40–765000 pg/mL (r = 0.999) with a limit of detection and quantitation of 12 and 40 pg/mL, respectively. For the achievement of these optimum results, the parameter values were set to 80 V/s for the scan rate, 0.7 s for the accumulation time, 300 mV for the accumulation potential, and 2 for the pH.