Differential pulse voltammetric determination of albendazole in pharmaceutical tablets using a cathodically pretreated boron-doped diamond electrode

A sensitive, simple, and rapid electrochemical method was developed for the determination of albendazole (ABZ) in anthelminthic pharmaceutical formulations using differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) with a cathodically pretreated boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrode and 0.05 mol L−1 H2SO4 as supporting electrolyte. The electrochemical behavior of ABZ obtained with cyclic voltammetry (CV) showed two oxidation peaks at 0.95 and 1.30 V vs. Ag/AgCl (3.0 mol L−1 KCl). The total number of electrons (four) transferred during the oxidation process was estimated from the scan rate dependence of this CV response. The proposed method resulted in an analytical curve ranging from 0.0797 to 8.36 μmol L−1, with a detection limit (based on 3-sigma) of 0.0625 μmol L−1. This novel DPV method was successfully applied to determine ABZ in three pharmaceutical formulations (tablets), with results similar to those obtained using a reference HPLC method.