Voltammetric behavior and determination of antidepressant drug paroxetine at carbon-based electrodes

Simple, rapid, sensitive, and reproducible methods were developed for the assay of paroxetine in tablets. The electrooxidative behavior and determination of paroxetine on boron-doped diamond and edge plane graphite electrodes were investigated as details using cyclic, differential pulse, and square wave voltammetric methods. The oxidation process was irreversible and exhibited mixed diffusion-adsorption controlled process depending on pH. The dependence of the peak current and peak potentials on pH, nature of the buffer, and scan rate studies were examined as details. The linear responses have been obtained in the range from 7.0 × 10 −7 M to 3.5 × 10 −6 M with 6.95 × 10 −9 M detection limit for the boron-doped diamond electrode and from 1.0 × 10 −8 M to 5.0 × 10 −6 M with 1.03 × 10 −9 M detection limit for the edge plane graphite electrode. The possible electrooxidation mechanism of paroxetine was investigated by means of model compounds of tamsulosin and mebeverine. It can be suggested that alkoxybenzene moiety may be the responsible group for the oxidation of paroxetine (PRX). The developed methods have been successfully applied for the determination of paroxetine in pharmaceutical dosage form.