Determination of diclofenac in pharmaceutical preparations by voltammetry and gas chromatography methods

Rapid, sensitive and specific methods were developed for the determination of diclofenac in pharmaceutical preparations by linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) and gas chromatography (GC) with mass spectrometry (MS) detection. The linearity was established over the concentration range of 5–35 μg/mL for LSV and 0.25–5 μg/mL for GC–MS method. The intra- and inter-day relative standard deviation (RSD) was less than 4.39% and 4.62% for LSV and GC–MS, respectively. Limits of quantification (LOQ) were determined as 4.8 and 0.15 μg/mL for LSV and GC–MS, respectively. No interference was found from tablet excipients at the selected assay conditions. The methods were applied for the quality control of commercial diclofenac dosage forms to quantify the drug and to check the formulation content uniformity.