Analytical Potentialities of Carbon Nanotube/Silicone Rubber Composite Electrodes: Determination of Propranolol

A new composite electrode based on multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) and silicone-rubber (SR) was developed and applied to the determination of propranolol in pharmaceutical formulations. The effect of using MWCNT/graphite mixtures in different proportions was also investigated. Cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy were used for electrochemical characterization of different electrode compositions. Propranolol was determined using MWCNT/SR 70% (m/m) electrodes with linear dynamic ranges up to 7.0 mu molL(-1) by differential pulse and up to 5.4 mu molL(-1) by square wave voltammetry, with LODs of 0.12 and 0.078 mu molL(-1), respectively. Analysis of commercial samples agreed with that obtained by the official spectrophotometric method. The electrode is mechanically robust and presented reproducible results and a long useful life.

TLC Separation and Identification of the Essential Oil Constituents from Aloysia gratissima

The present work had as objective the isolation of the five compounds by thin-layer Chromatography (TLC) from the essential oil of the Aloysia gratissima. For this, a number of systems of eluents were used for its separation, indicating that through the system acetone/hexane in proportions (v/v) 1:30 it was possible to isolate guaiol, elemol, pinocanphone (trans-3-pinanone), cis-pinocarvyl, and acorenone. The isolation of the compound acorenone from the other compounds was possible with the mixture of solvents hexane/dichloromethane in proportions (v/v) (1:1,3).