Determination of ethaverine and papaverine using ion-selective electrodes

Ion-selective poly(vinyl chloride) membrane electrodes for the opium alkaloids papaverine and ethaverine are presented. The electrode membranes contain ion pairs of the alkaloids with the anionic counter ion tetraphenylborate. The detection limits for all electrodes were approximately 2 x 10(-6) mol dm-3 at pH 5.0 in 100 mmol dm-3 buffered solutions and the measured slopes were close to the values theoretically expected. The selectivity coefficient observed for the ethaverine-tetraphenylborate electrode is 10(-1.1) with respect to papaverine. The suitability of the membranes for single-use electrodes is discussed.