Several analytical methods have been published concerning the determination of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in drug formulations or in environmental samples. The most commonly used are chromatographic techniques but these methods are time consuming, expensive, require complicated preconcentration processes and need sophisticated instruments. On the other hand, electrochemical methods present the advantage of high simplicity, high sensitivity, good stability and low cost. These instruments can also be portable, which is particularly suitable for on-site monitoring of pharmaceuticals in field analysis.

In the present work, Carbamazepine, Ibuprofen, Clarithromycin, Naratriptan, Dopamine and Acetaminophen have been determined using different electrochemical techniques at screen printed electrodes (SPE). The spectroelectrochemical behavior of the voltammetric response of some of these APIs allows the selective detection of these compounds despite their similar oxidation potentials on SPEs. The analysis was carried out by simultaneously performing an electrochemical and an optical experiment, the corresponding voltabsorptograms obtained are presented, showing the correlation between the derivative voltabsorptograms at the maximum of absorbances and the electrochemical curve.

This work is supported by Innovec`EAU (SOE1/P1/F0173) project from the Interreg Sudoe 2014-2020 program funding by European Regional Development Funds