Electrochemical behaviour of pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6) at carbon paste electrode modified with crown ethers

The electrochemical behaviour of pyridoxine hydrochloride (pyridoxine HCl) at the plain carbon paste electrode and the electrode modified with oxa crown ether has been studied using voltammetric and impedance measurements. The macrocycles used as modifiers were 18-crown-6, dibenzo-18-crown-6 (DB18C6), dicyclohexano-18-crown-6 and dibenzo-24-crown-8, out of which DB18C6 gave better response for pyridoxine HCl. Tris buffer (pH 10.3) was chosen as an appropriate medium among the several supporting electrolytes of varying pH studied. The characterization of the DB18C6-modified electrode (CME-DB18C6) using kinetic parameters such as number of electrons (n) and electron transfer coefficient (α) is studied by cyclic voltammetry. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopic measurements obtained confirm the current enhancement over the modified electrode. Analytical applications of this electrode have been studied for the determination of pyridoxine HCl. A sensitive linear working range of 0.6 to 100 μg cm−3 with a detection limit of 0.4 μg cm−3 by differential pulse voltammetry was observed for pyridoxine HCl on CME-DB18C6. However, on decreasing the scan rate to 5 mV s−1, the detection limit lowered to 0.2 μg cm−3. Interference from some vitamins like thiamine hydrochloride, riboflavin, nicotinamide, para-aminobenzoic acid, cyanocobalamin, folic acid and d-biotin and amino acid l-tryptophan was studied, and simultaneously, riboflavin, thiamine hydrochloride and pyridoxine HCl were determined over the modified electrode, CME-DB18C6. The modified electrode is successfully used for the determination of pyridoxine HCl in multivitamin pharmaceutical preparations.