Study of the enhancement of a new chemiluminescence reaction and its application to determination of β‐lactam antibiotics

Abstract

An enhanced thiosemicarbazide(TSC)-H2O2 chemiluminescence (CL) system was established and proposed as a new analytical method for determination of beta-lactam antibiotics, ampicillin sodium and amoxicillin at microgram levels. The method is based on the inhibition of CL emission accompanying oxidation of TSC by H2O2 in alkaline medium. The effect of anionic, cationic, and non-ionic surfactants on the CL emission of the system was studied. Both N-cetyl-N,N,N-trimethylammonium bromide (CTMAB) and Triton X-100, unlike sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), reinforced the CL intensity and were efficient to approximately the same level. The effect of the presence of eight non-aqueous solvents on the CL system was also investigated. Upon addition of both of the non-ionic surfactant, Triton X-100, and the non-aqueous solvent, N,N-dimethyl formamide (DMF), the intensity of the CL reaction was increased 100-fold. This method allows the measurement of 25-545 microg amoxicillin, and 35-350 microg ampicillin sodium. The detection limits are 8 microg for amoxicillin and 9 microg for ampicillin sodium. The relative standard deviations of six replicate measurements of 200 microg amoxicillin and 200 microg ampicillin sodium were 1.9 and 2.1%, respectively. The effect of foreign species on the determination of amoxicillin and ampicillin sodium was also examined. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of ampicillin sodium and amoxicillin in some pharmaceutical dosage forms.