Potentiodynamic Poly(resorcinol)-Modified Glassy Carbon Electrode as a Voltammetric Sensor for Determining Cephalexin and Cefadroxil Simultaneously in Pharmaceutical Formulation and Biological Fluid Samples

This study covers the development of a fast, selective, sensitive, and stable method for the simultaneous determination of cephalosporins (cephalexin (CLN) and cefadroxil (CFL)) in biological fluids and tablet samples using potentiodynamic fabrication of a poly(resorcinol)-modified glassy carbon electrode (poly(reso)/GCE). The results of cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy supported the modification of the GCE by a polymer layer that raised the electrode surface area and conductivity. At the poly(reso)/GCE, an irreversible oxidative peak with four-and fivefold current enhancement for CLN and CFL, respectively, at a substantially lower potential demonstrated the catalytic action of the modifier. Under optimized solution and parameters, the peak current response at the poly(reso)/GCE revealed a linear dependence on the concentration of CLN and CFL within the range 0.1-300 and 0.5-300 mu M, respectively, with a limit of detection (LoD) of 3.12 and 8.7 nM, respectively. The levels of CLN in four selected tablet brands and CFL in two tablet brands were in the vicinity of 91.00-103.65% and 97.7-98.83%, respectively, of their nominal values. The recovery results for CLN in pharmaceutical samples were in the range of 99.00-100.67% and for CFL 97.9-99.75% and for blood serum and urine samples 99.55-100.55% and 99.33-100.34% for CLN and 97.13-100.60% and 96.73-102.50% for CFL, respectively. Interference recovery results with errors less than 4.81%, lower LoD, wider dynamic range, excellent recovery results, and good stability of the modifier compared to those for the previously reported methods validated the use of the poly(reso)/GCE for determining CLN and CFL simultaneously in various real samples.