Spectrophotometric determination of three anti-ulcer drugs through charge-transfer complexation

A simple charge-transfer complexation method is described for the spectrophotometric assay of nizatidine, ranitidine, and famotidine. This method is based on interaction of these drugs, as n-electron donors, with 7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquino-dimethane, as the pi-acceptor, in acetonitrile to give highly colored green radical anions that are measured at 840 nm. Calibration graphs for the 3 compounds are linear over the concentration ranges of 1-6 mug/mL for nizatidine and ranitidine and 1-7 mug/mL for famotidine, with correlation coefficients (n = 6) of >0.999. The conditioned stability constants and the free energy changes were measured; the values obtained were generally high and negative, respectively, suggesting highly stable complexes. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of the drugs in pharmaceutical preparations. The assay results were in accordance with those obtained by using reference methods.