Sensitive Determination of Adrenaline by Means of a Flow-Through Solid Phase UV Spectrophotometric Sensing Device

Abstract.

 A very sensitive flow-through optosensor with solid phase UV spectroscopic detection is proposed for the direct determination of adrenaline without prior derivatization. Sample is transported by the carrier stream (0.05 M NaCl/0.01 M NaOH) to the sensing microzone composed of Sephadex QAE A-25 resin placed in a flow-through cell, and its intrinsic absorbance is monitored at 287 nm. After development of the analytical signal adrenaline is easily and quickly desorbed from the solid support by a 0.7 M NaCl/0.01 M NaOH eluting solution stream. Adrenaline can be determined in the range 1–12 μg/ml, the detection limit being 0.17 μg/ml. The RSD (10 replicates) and sample throughput are 1.4% and 12 per hour, respectively. The procedure has been successfully applied to the determination of adrenaline in different medical formulations.