Carbon Paste Electrode for the Potentiometric Flow Injection Analysis of Drotaverine Hydrochloride in Serum and Urine

A carbon paste electrode for drotaverine hydrochloride (DvCl) was prepared and fully characterized in terms of composition, life span, usable pH range, response time and temperature. The electrode was applied to the potentiometric determination of drotaverinium ions in pharmaceutical preparations and biological fluids in steady state and flow injection conditions (FIA). The electrode is based on a mixture of two ion exchangers, namely, drotaverinium-silicotungestate and drotaverinium-tetraphenylborate dissolved in tricresyl phosphate as pasting liquid. The modified electrode showed a near-Nernstian slope of 59.34±2mV over the concentration range of 5.0×10^–7–1.0 × 10^–2M. The electrode exhibits good selectivity for DvCl with respect to a large number of inorganic cations, organic cations, sugars and amino acids. Potentiometric titrations of DvCl with several titrants have been monitored using this modified carbon paste electrode as an end-point indicator electrode. The proposed electrode offers the advantages of simplicity, accuracy, automation feasibility and applicability to turbid and colored samples.