Electrochemistry of cefditoren pivoxil and its voltammetric determination

Electrochemical behavior of cefditoren pivoxil (CTP) was studied via experimental electrochemical methods and theoretical calculations performed at B3LYP/6-31+G(d)//AM1 level. Experimental studies were carried out based on an irreversible 4e−/4H+ reduction peak at ca. −0.8 V on hanging mercury drop electrode (HMDE) and irreversible 1e−/1H+ oxidation of CTP at ca. 0.8 V on glassy carbon electrode (GCE) versus Ag/AgCl, KCl (3.0 M) in Britton–Robinson buffer at pH 6.0 and 4.0, respectively. Tentative reduction and oxidation mechanisms were proposed based on computational and experimental results. Square-wave adsorptive stripping voltammetric methods have been developed and validated for quantification of CTP in different samples. Linear working range was established as 0.15–15.0 μM for HMDE and 1.0–50.0 μM for GCE. Limit of quantification (S/N = 10) was calculated to be (0.10 ± 0.02) μM and (0.80 ± 0.03) μM for HMDE and GCE, respectively. Methods were successfully applied to assay the drug in tablets and human serum with good recoveries between (99.2 ± 11.6) % and (102.5 ± 9.5) % having relative standard deviation less than 10%.