Determination of Clomipramine using eco-friendly solid-contact ionophore-doped potentiometric sensor

Clomipramine is a tricyclic antidepressant acting as a serotonin reuptake inhibitor. Its maximum plasma concentration (C_max) is 13-310 ng/mL, the therapeutic range is 220-500 ng/mL and its toxic effect appears in doses above 900 ng/mL.

The fabrication of eco-friendly solid-contact ion-selective electrodes to evaluate the concentration of Clomipramine in different matrices based on disposable screen-printed carbon electrode.

Disposable screen-printed carbon electrode was utilized as a substrate to fabricate the proposed sensors. The sensors were optimized to determine Clomipramine using calix[4]arene as an ionophore into PVC polymeric membrane to enhance selectivity towards the target analyte. The solid-contact sensor potential stability was improved by the incorporation of graphene nanoparticles transducer layer.

The sensors were assessed as per the IUPAC recommendations. The linearity range was 1 × 10^- 2 to 1 × 10^- 5.3 M. The sensors were successfully applied to determine CLM in the pharmaceutical formulation. Furthermore, the ion selective electrodes were applied for Clompiramine assay in spiked plasma for the purpose of Point-of-Care testing to be a diagnostic tool for therapeutic monitoring of the cited central nervous system agent. The findings were statistically compared to the reported method showing no statistically significant difference.

This work was concerned with developing a green analytical method for the determination of Clomipramine. The proposed SC-ISE was mixed with graphene nanocomposite transducer interlayer. The graphene layer succeeded in preventing the formation of an aqueous layer so resulted in a stable, reproducible standard potential besides the rapid response time.