FLOW-INJECTION CHEMILUMINESCENCE DETERMINATION OF TETRACYCLINES

A fast and simple flow injection chemiluminescence method for the dete rmination of trace amounts of tetracyclines is proposed based on the c hemiluminescence of the KMnO4 - TCs redox reaction in acidic medium in the presence of a sensitizer, OP. The response to the concentration o f tetracyclines is linear in the range of 1.00 to 1000 mu g mL(-1) wit h a relative standard deviation < 2.3% for determination of 50.0 mu g mL(-1) of each antibiotic (n = 11). The detection limits for tetracycl ine, oxytetracycline and chlortetracycline are 0.40, 0.52 and 0.60 mu g mL(-1), respectively. The recommended method is suitable for automat ic and continuous analysis and has been successfully tested for determ ination of tetracyclines in commercial formulations. The chemiluminesc ence intensity was found to be remarkably enhanced when in the presenc e of OP micellar system; possible reasons for this observed micellar i nduced enhanced chemiluminescence is given.