Poly(aquachlorobis(1,10–phenanthroline)copper(II)iodidemonohydrate)/GCE for simultaneous determination of caffeine and theophylline in human serum, tea, and tablet samples

This paper presents metal complex based polymer film modified electrode for simultaneous determination of caffeine, and theophylline. Potentiodynamic fabrication of poly(aquachlorobis(1,10– phenanthroline)copper(II)iodidemonohydrate) modified glassy carbon electrode (poly(ACP2CuIH)/GCE) was verified using cyclic voltammetric and electrochemical impedance spectroscopic techniques. In contrast to the unmodified glassy carbon electrode, the poly(ACP2CuIH)/GCE in equi-molar mixture of theophylline and caffeine revealed sufficiently separated oxidative peaks with much enhanced peak current showing electrocatalytic property of the polymer film towards the oxidation of theophylline and caffeine. Under optimized solution pH and square wave voltammetric parameters, oxidative peak current response of poly(ACP2CuIH)/GCE showed linear dependence on the concentration of caffeine and theophylline in the concentration range 1.0–200.0 µM with limit of detection 8.92 × 10-3 µM for theophylline, and 1.02 × 10-2 µM for caffeine. Spike recovery in the range 97.0-102.4% for theophylline, and 95.4-100.0% for caffeine, interference recovery in the range 96.0–101.0% for theophylline, and 95.7–104.3% for caffeine, agreement of the detected amounts of theophylline and caffeine in tablet samples with the nominal values, and stability of the modified electrode all validated the developed method for simultaneous determination of theophylline and caffeine in wide range of real samples. The method was applied for simultaneous determination of both theophylline and caffeine in three tea brands (Black lion, Addis, and Wush wush), pharmaceutical tablet brands (Panadol extra, and Theodrine), and human blood serum samples making the method an excellent candidate.