A spectrometric,separation and voltammetric study of the complexation reactions of bromazepam with iron(ii),copper(ii) and cobalt(ii)

Bromazepam, in the form of a cationic iron(II) chelate, can be determined spectrophotometrically at 588 nm with a limit of detection of ca. 10^-6 M. When this chelate is ion-paired with perchlorate, it can be extracted into organic solvents such as 1,2-dichloroethane and 4-methyl-2-pentanone, and determined by atomic absorption spectrometry with a limit of detection of 1.5 × 10^-5 M bromazepam at the iron resonance 248.3-nm line. Ion-pairs involving the Fe(II), Cu(II) and Co(II) chelates and perchlorate can be separated by h.p.l.c. using a C₁₈ reverse-phase column and a mobile phase of 4:1 water—methanol, with a u.v. detector at 242 nm. This approach allowed for the determination of iron(II) ions in aqueous solution with a limit of detection of 10^-8 M. The h.p.l.c. method could also be used to quantify bromazepam spiked in plasma in the concentration range 1–10 μg ml^-1, following extraction of bromazepam from plasma and subsequent formation of the iron(II) ion-pair. Copper(II) forms a labile chelate with bromazepam in pH 4.8 acetate buffer which, when subjected to differential pulse voltammetry at the hanging mercury drop electrode, gives rise to a catalytic phenomenon which can be utilised for the determination of bromazepam in the concentration range 10^-5–10^-9 M.