Abstract
Electrochemical determination of paracetamol (PCT) was successfully performed using carbon paste electrodes (CPEs) modified with treated coffee husks (CHt) or cellulose powder (Ce). Scanning electron microscopy was used to characterize unmodified or modified CPEs prior to their use. The electrochemical oxidation of PCT was investigated using square wave voltammetry (SWV) and cyclic voltammetry (CV). The oxidation current density of PCT was two-fold higher with the CPE-CHt sensor and 30% higher with CPE-Ce in comparison with the unmodified CPE, and this correlated with the higher hydrophilicity of the modified electrodes. Using SWV for the electrochemical analysis of PCT, carbon paste electrode modified with raw coffee husks (CPE-CHr) showed the presence of impurities at +0.27 V/SCE, showing the interest in using pure cellulose for the present analytical application. Furthermore, CPE-Ce presented a higher real area compared to CPE-CHr, which explains the increase in the limit of saturation from 400 mg/L to 950 mg/L. The better saturation limit exhibited by CPE-Ce justifies its choice for electroanalysis of PCT in commercialized tablets. The proposed method was successfully applied in the determination of PCT in commercialized tablets (Doliprane® 500) with a recovery rate close to 100%, and no interference with the excipients contained in the tablets analyzed was observed.
Highlights
Paracetamol (4’-hydroxyacetanilide or N-acetyl p-aminophenol, hereafter referred to as PCT) is one of the most widely used drugs in the world, because of its great activity against mild to moderate pain associated with headache, backache and arthritis [1] and its efficiency against fever [2]
The surface of unmodified carbon paste electrodes (CPEs) was compact and homogenous, whereas it was irregular for CPE-CHr and CPE-Ce in relation to the presence of treated coffee husk or cellulose powder, respectively, in the carbon paste, indicating microporosity which could facilitate the diffusion of PCT in the bulk of modified CPEs
This could be assigned to the presence of treated coffee husk or cellulose powder on modified CPEs that improves the hydrophilicity of the surface and increases the real area of the working electrode
Summary
Paracetamol (4’-hydroxyacetanilide or N-acetyl p-aminophenol, hereafter referred to as PCT) is one of the most widely used drugs in the world, because of its great activity against mild to moderate pain associated with headache, backache and arthritis [1] and its efficiency against fever [2]. The exploitation of ligno-cellulosic materials (LCMs) as effective sorbents for organic compounds, such as dyes and pesticides, has been largely investigated during the last decade [29,30,31,32] The uptake of such organic compounds is commonly achieved via hydroxyl and carbonyl groups found abundantly in polysaccharides (cellulose and hemicelluloses) and lignin, which together constitute about 90% of dried LCMs [33]. Coffee husk is the part enclosing coffee beans; it represents about 12% of the berry dryweight, and contains cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin and ash [35, 36] This attractive composition explains why coffee husks have recently been exploited for PCT analysis in a LCM modified CPE amperometric sensor [27]. The analytical performance of a novel modified CPE for quantification of PCT was evaluated by SWV on commercialized pharmaceutical tablets
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