Square Wave Voltammetric Determination of Paracetamol in Drugs and Human Urine Samples

Abstract

A method based on square wave voltammetry (SWV) on activated glassy carbon electrode (AGCE) was investigated for the determination of Paracetamol (N-acetyl-p-aminophenol) (APAP) from drugs and human urine samples. The AGCE was prepared by applying a potential of 1750 mV, sensitivity of 100 μA/V, on bare glassy carbon electrode (GCE), dipped in 0.1 M phosphate buffer solution (PBS) at pH 7.0, for 200 s. It was found that AGCE efficiently electro catalyzed the oxidation of APAP than bare GCE. Cyclic voltammetric study showed that AGCE decreases the over potential of APAP by 131 mVs compared to bare glassy carbon electrode. The optimal SWV operational conditions of the proposed method were: step potential; 8 mV, accumulation potential 250 mV, accumulation time 30 s and square wave amplitude; 70 mV and square wave frequency; 30 Hz using a phosphate buffer solution at pH 7.0. The method was linear in the range 0.4  100 μM paracetamol with detection limit of 0.0134 μM. The proposed method was applied for APAP determination in commercial tablets and also in human urine with 99% accuracy and interferents like uric acid, copper sulphate, pyridine, acetic acid and glucose also investigated. Only uric acid showed a great interfering effect for the detection of paracetamol.