First Voltammetric Method of Phenoxyethanol Determination in Pharmaceutical and Cosmetic Preparations

Abstract

The first voltammetric method of identification and determination of phenoxyethanol (PE) in pharmaceutical and cosmetic preparations has been successfully developed. The measurements were carried out using differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) on a platinum microelectrode in glacial acetic acid containing acetonitrile (20%, v/v) and 0.1 mol L−1 sodium perchlorate as supporting electrolyte. A linear voltammetric response for PE was obtained in wide concentration range from 5.4 × 10−6 to 1.5 × 10−3 mol L−1, with low detection limit of 3.6 × 10−7 mol L−1. The repeatability and reproducibility of the peak current for phenoxyethanol concentration of 3.6 × 10−5 mol L−1 expressed as % RSD (n = 10) were very good and do not exceeded 0.5% and 0.8%, respectively. The obtained results indicate that the developed method allows sensitive, accurate and precise determination of PE in pharmaceuticals and cosmetics without the need for its separation from the matrices. The proposed method is simple and fast so it can serve as an analytical alternative for chromatographic techniques.