Electrochemical behavior of propranolol hydrochloride in neutral solution on calixarene/multi-walled carbon nanotubes modified glassy carbon electrode

•Calixarene and multi-walled carbon nanotubes mixture as the electrode modified material.•The modified material dropped directly onto the electrode surface.•Detected in the neutral environment.

A new modified electrode based on multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) and 8-hydroxy-8-propoxy-calix [8] arene (HPC-8) was developed and applied to the determination of propranolol in pharmaceutical formulations. The effect of using HPC-8/MWCNT as the modifier of electrode was characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and electrochemical method which showed an excellent character for electrocatalytic oxidization of propranolol hydrochloride (PRO). Due to the fine characteristics of HPC-8/MWCNT, a good linear relationship between the anodic peak current and PRO concentration in the range 3.38 × 10−7–5.41 × 10−5 mol/L was observed. The detection limit of 1.35 × 10−7 mol/L was achieved with the linear correlation coefficient R = 0.9956. The relative standard derivation was 3.2% for 3.38 × 10−6 mol/L PRO in 11 repeated determinations. This modified electrode presented excellent sensitivity and stability for the determination of PRO.