Coulometric titration of penicillins and penicillamine with mercury(II)

An absolute coulometric method based on the titration of hydrolysed penicillins with coulometrically generated mercury(II) is presented. An amalgamated gold plate is used as anode and the titration is performed in a pH 4.6 acetate buffer solution. The method gives values which deviate by less than 1% from values obtained by other absolute methods. The relative standard deviation for determination of penicillin G is 0.4%. The determinations of penicillamine and mixtures of penicillamine and penicilloate are also reported.