Electrochemical methods for determination of active substances in pharmaceutical and cosmetics products

In recent years, there have been significant developments in the production of various kinds of care and beauty products for skin, hair, nails, body in the cosmetic industry. However, contamination of cosmetic products and impurities can cause health problems. In terms of prevention of adverse health effects in cosmetic products, the most important metals to consider are heavy metals such as lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury and antimony. Although many analytical methods are not known for the analysis of these metals, more spectroscopic and chromatographic methods are used in routine analyzes. All of these methods are suitable for the determination of metals at low concentration, but ICP-MS, ICP-AES and AAS methods are the most commonly used in cosmetic products [1-12]. These methods require disadvantages such as the necessity of high cost devices as well as the preparation of specimens, the expertise of the person to carry out the analysis, the necessity of bringing the samples to the laboratory. However, electrochemical methods are methods that allow low cost, expertise-free, on-site analytical analysis with portable. Despite these advantages of electrochemical methods, electrochemical methods for the determination of heavy metals in cosmetic products are few in the literature. It is observed in the literature that the lead content of antique residue is determined by differential pulse voltammetry [13], mercury determination by anodic stripping voltametry in skin whitening cosmetics [14] and mercury determination in various cosmetic products [15]. In this study, it is aimed to develop an electrochemical method for the determination of heavy metal contaminations in cosmetic products. This can be done either directly in the cosmetic product or after the sample preparation by means of cyclical voltammetry, differential pulse or square wave voltammetry. Another important goal of our work is to use low-cost working electrodes with our own means, to develop methods and to identify heavy metal in trace amounts in cosmetic products. It is also aimed to use the prepared electrodes in the determination of cosmetic and other components in pharmaceutical products and active substances.