On-line galvanic cell generated electrochemiluminescence determination of acyclovir based on the flow injection sampling

A new simple, rapid and cost effective flow injection (FI) electrochemiluminescence (ECL) method was described for the determination of acyclovir (9,2-hydroxyethoxy) methyl guanine. In the presence of acyclovir, the luminol electrochemiluminescence generated by a mini on-line galvanic cell could be greatly sensitized in alkaline medium. The relative electrochemiluminescence intensity was found to increase linearly with increasing concentration of acyclovir, which was corroborated by the calculated correlation coefficient value of 0.9994 (n = 7). The limit of detection was 1.6 x 10(-7) mol l(-1) and the limit of quantification was 7.9 x 10(-7) mol l(-1). The proposed method was applied to the determination of acyclovir in pharmaceutical formulations. The reliability of the assay method was established by parallel determination and by standard-addition method. Experiment results demonstrated the described mini analysis system, while being simple and less time consuming, was accurate, precise and reproducible (R.S.D. = 1.6%, recoveries = 99-103%). Further experiments indicated that there was no significant difference between the results obtained by the proposed and official methods. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.