Electroanalysis of cardioselective beta-adrenoreceptor blocking agent acebutolol by disposable graphite pencil electrodes with detailed redox mechanism

A simple economic graphite pencil electrode (GPE) was used for analysis of cardioselective, hydrophilic-adrenoreceptor blocking agent, acebutolol (ACBT) using the cyclic voltammetric, linear sweep voltammetric, differential pulse voltammetric (DPV), and square-wave voltammetric (SWV) techniques. The dependence of the current on pH, concentration, and scan rate was investigated to optimize the experimental condition for determination of ACBT. The electrochemical behavior of the ACBT at GPE was a diffusion-controlled process. A probable electro-redox mechanism was proposed. Under the optimal conditions, the anodic peak current was linearly proportional to the concentration of ACBT in the range from 1.00 to 15.0 μM with a limit of detection 1.26 × 10−8 M for DPV and 1.28 × 10−8 M for the SWV. This method was applied for quantitative determination of the ACBT levels in urine as real samples. The obtained recovery ranges for ACBT in urine were from 95.4 to 101% as found by the standard addition technique. Further interference study was also carried with some common interfering substances. *Corresponding author: Sharanappa T. Nanadibewoor, P.G. Department of Studies in Chemistry, Karnatak University, Dharwad 580 003, India E-mail: [email protected] Reviewing editor: Mark Russell StJohn Foreman, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden Additional information is available at the end of the article ABOUT THE AUTHORS Atmanand M. Bagoji passed his MSc degree in Physical Chemistry (2012) from the Karnatak University, Dharwad, Karnataka, India. Currently, he is a PhD student in the Department of Chemistry at Karnatak University, Dharwad. His research interests are analytical chemistry and kinetics. He published eight articles. Shreekant M. Patil passed his MSc degree in Physical Chemistry (2012) from the Karnatak University, Dharwad, Karnataka, India. Currently, he is a PhD student in the Department of Chemistry at Karnatak University, Dharwad. His research interests are analytical chemistry and kinetics. He published three articles. Sharanappa T. Nandibewoor is a professor of Chemistry, P.G. Department of Studies in Chemistry, Karnatak University, Dharwad, Karnataka, India. He obtained his MSc in 1974 and PhD in 1979 from Karnatak University, Dharwad. His research interests cover kinetics, catalysis, electrochemical sensors, nanomaterial applications, and analytical chemistry. He has published more than 355 papers in reputed journals with H-index 25. PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT This work demonstrates electroanalysis of acebutolol by disposable graphite pencil electrodes with detailed redox mechanism where green chemistry involved. Acebutolol drug is analyzed by highly sensitive voltammetric techniques. The proposed method is simple, sensitive, and accurate. The method has the advantage that no prior extraction or clean-up procedure is required. The obtained detection limits using proposed method were comparable and improved to that reported by earlier methods. This allows the determination of acebutolol in biological fluids at levels found after drug administration at normal doses. The present method could possibly be adopted for the pharmacokinetic studies as well as for quality control laboratories. Received: 02 July 2015 Accepted: 23 March 2016 Published: 25 April 2016 © 2016 The Author(s). This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license. Page 2 of 11 Atmanand M. Bagoji