Determination of Chloramphenicol by Differential Pulse Polarography

Chloramphenicol was studied by differential pulse polarography (DDP). A reduction peak which is dependent on pH of the solution appeared in the voltage range between zero and -1.50 volt vs. Ag/AgCl (sat. KCl) reference electrode. A plot of peak potentials (Ep) measured at room temperature (20) vs. pH of the chloramphenicol solutions showed linear relationship changing slope (Ep/pH) at pH 8.9. The slope was -59.7 mV/pH in pH 2.7∼8.9 and -24.3 mV/pH in pH 8.9∼11.2, respectively. A log plot of peak currents (ip) vs. concentrations showed a linearity at the concentrations between 4.8 10 M and 6.2 10 M (0.16 ppm∼20 ppm) chloramphenicol in pH 8.0 ammonium buffer. Between the DPP method and the reference method measuring absorbance at 278 nm, the correlation coefficient was 0.996, which means an excellent linearity. The DPP method was able to detect degradation products of chloramphenicol in mild alkaline solution (pH = 8.0) more distinctly than the spectrophotometric method.