Voltammertic determination of paracetamol by N,N'-bis(salicylaldimine)-benzene-1,2-diamine chromium(III) Schiff base complex modified GCE

Abstract Paracetamol, (N-acetyl-p-aminophenol, acetaminophen; PAR) is an analgesic and antipyretic drug which is used to get rid of mild to moderate pain associated with headache, backache, arthritis, postoperative pain and for reducing fevers of bacterial/viral origin. Paracetamol will lead to serious side effects when it is used over dose and used with alcohol or other drugs can cause skin rashes, hepatic toxicity, kidney damage, liver failure, nephrotoxicity inflammation of the pancreas and finally may lead to death. When paracetamol is used during pregnancy it has more possibility for presence of asthma in children. Hence it is imperative to develop an accurate quantification method for paracetamol, for a great impact in clinical diagnosis, food safety and quality of paracetamol containing medicines. There are several analytical procedure available for the determination of paracetamol, they include titrimetry, fluorimetry, colorimetry, spectrophotometry, chromatography, enzymatic methods and electrocatalytic methods. The electrochemical method is one of the best methods for the determination of paracetamol due to its simple procedure, low cost, fast response, high selectivity and better sensitivity. In the present work, we have used chromium(III) Schiff base complex for the modification of GCE by electrochemical polymerization method. The modified GCE is utilized for the determination of PAR, which exhibits an anodic potential at 0.4 V and the anodic current is 15.2 μA. The bare GCE exhibits the oxidation potential at 0.5 V and the current is 14.5 μA. The modified GCE shows better electrocatalytic activity for the determination of PAR. From the results we can conclude that the chromium(III) Schiff base complexes can be used as a better electrocatalytic sensor for the detection of paracetamol.