Voltammetric determination of methimazole using a carbon paste electrode modified with a Schiff base complex of cobalt

The electrochemical behavior of methimazole, as an antithyroid agent, is investigated on the surface of a carbon-paste electrode modified with a newly synthesized Schiff base complex of cobalt. The prepared modified electrode showed an efficient catalytic role in the electrochemical oxidation of methimazole, leading to remarkable decrease in oxidation overpotential and enhancement of the kinetics of the electrode reaction. The mechanism of the electrocatalytic process on the surface of the modified electrode is analyzed by obtaining the cyclic voltammograms in various potential sweep rates and pHs of the buffer solutions. The differential pulse voltammetry is applied as a very sensitive analytical method for the determination of sub-micromolar amounts of methimazole. A linear dynamic range of 1 x 10(-6) to 1 x 10(-4) M with a detection limit of 5 x 10(-7) M is resulted for methimazole. The modified electrode is successfully applied for the accurate determination of methimazole in pharmaceutical and clinical preparations. The linear range in calibration curves remains constant in addition to tablet preparations of methimazole and also in spiking to the synthetic human serum samples. In comparison to calibration curves in background buffer solution, the slope of the curves showed a variation less than 3% in determinations in background solutions of tablet and human synthetic serum samples. These results showed high efficiency of the Voltammetric procedure for accurate determination of methimazole in drug and clinical preparations. The modified electrode can be prepared very easy and renewed in its surface by simple polishing. The reproducibility of the electrode response, based on ten measurements during two month, was 3.2% for the slope of the calibration curve.