Electro-oxidation and determination of antihistamine drug, cetirizine dihydrochloride at glassy carbon electrode modified with multi-walled carbon nanotubes

A multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) film-modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) was constructed for the determination of an antihistamine drug, cetirizine dihydrochloride (CTZH) using cyclic voltammetry (CV). Owing to the unique structure and extraordinary properties of MWCNT, the MWCNT film has shown an obvious electrocatalytic activity towards oxidation of CTZH, since it facilitates the electron transfer and significantly enhances the oxidation peak current of CTZH. All experimental parameters have been optimized. Under the optimum conditions, the oxidation peak current was linearly proportional to the concentration of CTZH in the range from 5.0 x 10(-7) to 1.0 x 10(-5) M. The detection limit was 7.07 x 10(-8) M with 180s accumulation. Finally, the proposed sensitive and simple electrochemical method was successfully applied to CTZH determination in pharmaceutical and urine samples. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.