Indirect Square-Wave Voltammetric Determination of Cefepime in the Presence of Formaldehyde

In this study, a new, easy, and sensitive voltammetric approach was proposed for indirect determination of cefepime by forming Schiff base in its pharmaceutical formulations. A square-wave voltammetric method on a hanging mercury drop electrode was developed for the indirect determination of cefepime. The effects of supporting electrolyte, pH, concentration of formaldehyde, and instrumental parameters on the voltammetric response of cefepime were studied to select the optimum experimental conditions. In the presence of 0.118 M formaldehyde, cefepime exhibited a sensitive, highly reproducible, and well-defined cathodic peak using Britton-Robinson buffer at pH 8.0. The optimum conditions were described as 70 Hz frequency, 6 mV scan increment and 30 mV pulse amplitude. The validation parameters such as linearity, sensitivity, repeatability, accuracy, precision, selectivity, recovery, robustness and ruggedness were tested according to the ICH guideline. The monitored peak current was directly proportional to the concentration of cefepime and it shows a linear response in the range from 0.70 to 5.26 mu g/mL (r = 0.9995). Limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) were found 0.19 and 0.70 mu g/mL, respectively. After validation of the developed method, it was applied on the analysis of pharmaceutical formulations. Mean recovery of 100.02 +/- 0.54 (n = 7) was achieved for assay of cefepime in Maxipime (R) injection.