Indirect Determination of Ampicillin Sodium with Sodium Nitrate–Ammonium Thiocyanate–Water System by Extraction-Flotation of Cuprous Thiocyanate

Abstract

A novel method for indirect determination of ampicillin sodium by the extraction⎯flotation is proposed in this paper. It is indicated that the degradation of ampicillin sodium took place in the presence of 0.30 M sodium hydroxide in boiling water for 20 min. At pH 4.0, in the presence of ammonium thiocyanate, the thiol group of the degradation product of ampicillin sodium could reduce copper(II) to copper(I) due to the formation of the emulsion cuprous thiocyanate precipitation. By determining the residual amount of cop per(II) in the solution and calculating the flotation yield of cuprous thiocyanate, the indirect determination of ampicillin sodium can be performed. When the concentration of cooper(II) was 5.0 μg/mL, a good linear relationship was obtained between the flotation yield of cuprous thiocyanate and the amount of ampicillin sodium in the range of 0.40~9.6 μg/mL. The linear equation is E = 4.1469 + 3.7949c with the correlation coefficient r = 0.9992, and the detection limit (3σ/K) of 0.37 μg/mL. Each parameter has been optimized and the reaction mechanism has been studied. The method has been successfully applied to the determina tion of ampicillin sodium in pharmaceutical, human plasma and urine samples. Analytical results obtained are satisfactory.