Electrochemical determination of imipramine with nano based electrodes

Imipramine-based drugs are tricyclic antidepressants with low level of anticholinergic and alpha-adrenergic effects, mostly used in the treatment of depression. Rapid and accurate determination of the concentration of imipramine in body fluids is important for the treatment of disease. No studies were found in the literature that a pencil graphite electrode was used as a working electrode for the investigation of the electrochemical behavior of imipramine and its voltammetric determination. The developed electrodes were designed for the first time and the determination of imipramine was made with these electrodes for the first time. Analyses were performed with Autolab Potentiostat/Galvanostat PGSTAT-302 N device. During the preparation of the electrodes, the cyclic voltammetry (CV) method was applied. Optimization of the electrodes and drug analyses were performed with differential pulse voltammetry (DPV). Aqueous Ag/AgCl, Pt wire, and silver nanoparticle-modified electrodes were used as reference electrode, a counter electrode, and working electrode, respectively. Two methods were applied for the modification. Firstly, the bare PGE was activated in 0.05 M buffer solution and at a potential of +1.4 V. Then, the electrodes were kept in solutions of nAg and made ready for measurement (Activated-nAg-PGE). In the second method, the electrochemical coating on PGE was performed by polymerization of pyrrole (Py) and made ready for measurement (nAg-PPy-PGE). Britton-Robinson buffer solutions with different pH values were used in the investigation of the electrochemical behavior. The optimum conditions for Activated-nAg-PGE were determined as 60 sec. for activation, 15 min. for modification, and 10 ppm for nAg. The optimum cycle number for nAg-PPy-PGE were determined 7, scanning speed was 60 mV/s and pH value was 7. Surface characterization of the electrodes was performed by SEM analysis and elemental analysis was performed by SEM-EDS analysis. In addition, electrochemical determinations of imipramine-containing pharmaceutical samples were also carried out under optimum conditions.