A sensitive and simple chemiluminescent (CL) method for the determination of diclofenac sodium has been developed by combining the flow injection technique and its sensitizing effect on the weak CL reaction between formaldehyde and acidic potassium permanganate. A calibration curve is constructed for diclofenac sodium under optimized experimental parameters over the range 0.040-5.0 µg/mL and the limit of detection is 0.020 µg/mL (3σ). The inter-assay relative standard deviation for 0.040 µg/mL diclofenac sodium (n = 11) is 2.0%. This method is rapid, sensitive, simple, and shows good selectivity and reproducibility. The proposed method has been successfully applied to the determination of the studied diclofenac sodium in pharmaceutical preparations with satisfactory results. Furthermore, the possible mechanism for the CL reaction has been discussed in detail on the basis of UV and CL spectra.
Keywords: chemiluminescence; diclofenac sodium; flow-injection; formaldehyde; potassium permanganate.
Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.