Spectrophotometric and atomic absorption spectrometric determination of certain cephalosporins

Two sensitive spectrophotometric and atomic absorption spectrometric procedures are developed for the determination of certain cephalosporins (cefotaxime sodium and cefuroxime sodium). The spectrophotometric methods are based on the charge-transfer complex formation between these drugs as pi-donors and 7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ) or p-chloranilic acid (p-CA) as pi-acceptors to give highly coloured complex species. The coloured products are measured spectrophotometrically at 838 and 529 nm for TCNQ and p-CA, respectively. Beer's law is obeyed in a concentration range of 7.6-15.2 and 7.1-20.0 mu g ml(-1) with TCNQ, 95.0-427.5 and 89.0-400.5 mu g ml(-1) with p-CA for cefotaxime sodium and cefuroxime sodium, respectively. The atomic absorption spectrometric methods are based on the reaction of the above cited drugs after their alkali-hydrolysis with silver nitrate or lead acetate in neutral aqueous medium. The formed precipitates are quantitatively determined directly or indirectly through the silver or lead content of the precipitate formed or the residual unreacted metal in the filtrate by atomic absorption spectroscopy. The optimum conditions for hydrolysis and precipitation have been carefully studied. Beer's law is obeyed in a concentration range of 1.9-11.4 and 1.78-8.90 mu g ml(-1) with Ag(I), 14.2-57.0 and 13.3-53.4 mu g ml(-1) with Pb(II) for cefotaxime sodium and cefuroxime sodium, respectively (for both direct and indirect procedures). The spectrophotometric and the atomic absorption spectrometric procedures hold well their accuracy and precision when applied to the analysis of cefotaxime sodium and cefuroxime sodium dosage forms. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.