Disposable Pencil Graphite Electrode for Ciprofloxacin Determination in Pharmaceutical Formulations by Square Wave Voltammetry

In this work, a new electrochemical sensor based on pencil graphite with interesting features, such as low cost (US$ 0.01 per electrode), ease manufacture, and portability was developed. The sensor showed an adequate manufacturing reproducibility with RSD <5.3 %. Under this electrochemical platform, ciprofloxacin underwent an irreversible oxidation process at 1.03 V, characterized by the diffusion of electroactive species. A simple method by square wave voltammetry (SWV) has been optimized for the determination of ciprofloxacin in pharmaceutical formulations using a pencil graphite electrode (PGE). The method showed satisfactory analytical performance, with a wide linear range (12 to 55 mu mol L-1), low detection limit (5.6 mu mol L-1), adequate precision (RSD <3.2 %), and accuracy with an average recovery of (102 +/- 15)%. Samples of pharmaceutical formulations were evaluated, obtaining levels of ciprofloxacin close to those established by the manufacturers. In addition, the samples were analyzed by liquid chromatography and there was no significant difference between the methods at the 95 % confidence level. In this sense, the method developed proved to be reliable and promising for the quality control of pharmaceutical formulations.

Automated summary

A new electrochemical sensor based on pencil graphite was developed for the determination of ciprofloxacin, showing good reproducibility and accuracy. The method exhibited satisfactory analytical performance and was proven to be reliable for the quality control of pharmaceutical formulations.