Sensitive and eco-friendly voltammetric detection of galantamine using a screen-printed sensor with a functional boron-doped diamond electrode.

The presented study focused on developing and optimizing a modern electroanalytical platform for the direct quantitative determination of galantamine. This work used different voltammetric methods to use a screen-printed sensor with a working boron-doped diamond electrode (SP/BDDE). Beneficial analytical performance for detecting galantamine was achieved in a Britton-Robinson buffer with pH 3.0. The oxidation peaks at 0.92 V and 1.20 V were followed for electrochemical quantification of galantamine. High-resolution mass spectrometry was used for the first time to analyze the products of preparative electrolysis, and a mechanism for the electrochemical oxidation of galantamine was proposed, which describes the demethylation of galantamine and the further oxidation of the hydroxyl group to a ketone group in the galantamine molecule. Coupled with the optimized parameters of differential pulse voltammetry and square-wave voltammetry on the SP/BDDE detected galantamine in two linear ranges (the first range was from 1.22 μM to 10 μM; the second range was from 10 μM to 200 μM), providing the limit of detection and limit of quantification on a micromolar level (0.50 μM and 1.48 μM, respectively). Amperometry and chronoamperometry were employed to develop a rapid detection method for galantamine. In this approach, galantamine can be detected at a level of 1.08 μM (amperometry at the second peak). The selectivity of the optimized amperometric methods was found to be excellent in the presence of ten times higher concentrations of certain interferences. The practical applicability of the SP/BDDE for detecting galantamine was demonstrated through the analysis of pharmaceutical products and human urine samples. The proposed procedure fully complies with the latest requirements of green analytical chemistry.