An extensive study of electrochemical behavior of brimonidine and its determination at glassy carbon electrode

Highlights: • The electrochemical behavior of BRIM was investigated by CV, DPV and SWV at GCE. • The effects of pH, scan rate and BRIM concentriation was studied. • The nature of the electrode process, and the mechanism scheme was proposed. • DPV method was developed for the estimation of BRIM in the Alphagan eye drops. -- Abstract: The electrochemical behavior of brimonidine (BRIM), an antiglaucoma agent applied in therapy for lowering high intraocular pressure, was investigated by cyclic voltammetry, differential pulse voltammetry and square wave voltammetry using a glassy carbon electrode (GCE). The reduction of BRIM occurs as one-step quasi-reversible reaction in acid and neutral medium, reaching the full reversibility in alkaline solutions. Reduction process involves the transfer of two electrons and two protons at the pyrazine ring of quinoxaline moiety, forming a dihydro-derivative. In acid and neutral solutions, brimonidine reduction product is partly oxidized to its hydroxy-derivative. BRIM is also oxidized irreversibly with the transfer of one electron and one proton at secondary amine moiety. The effects of pH of the electrolyte solution, scan rate and BRIM concentration were monitored. The nature of the electrode process was found to be controlled by the adsorption at pH > 6 and the total surface concentration of brimonidine adsorbed onto the GCE surface at pH 7, ΓBRIM = 1.35 × 10−10 mol cm−2 was obtained. Based on this study, differential pulse voltammetric method was developed, validated and suggested for rapid electroanalytical determination of the low concentration of brimonidine. The linearity was achieved within the concentration range from 5 × 10−7 to 5 × 10−6 M with LOD = 1.6 × 10−7 M and LOQ = 5.3 × 10−7 M. The method was applied for brimonidine determination in pharmaceutical dosage form, eye drops