All-solid-state citalopram sensor and its application for the analysis of pharmaceutical formulations

Citalopram (cp),which is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (ssri),is used for the treatment depression. due to the importance of the analysis of this compound,an all-solid-state polymeric membrane electrode (ass-pme) has been devised using an ion-pair agent as the sensing element of the device. the experimental results proved that the best sensor response is observed using membranes including 7%wt cp-tetraphenyl borate (the sensing element),57%wt dibutyl phthalate as the solvent mediator,33%wt poly(vinyl chloride) and 3%wt of an ionic liquid. the ass element of the device is a conductive composite of graphite,multiwall carbon nanotubes (mwcnts),and epoxy resin which is coated on a cu wire,which is finally coated with a thin film of the pme. the response of the ass-pme was linear in the range of 1.0×10-7 to 1.0×10-3 mol l-1 and reached the slope of 57.3±0.3 mv/decade under optimal conditions. the experiments revealed that the optimized citalopram ass-pme is applicable in the quality control analyses,which was validated by its application for measurement of citalopram in its tablets. © 2015 by cee (center of excellence in electrochemistry).