Investigation of electrochemical behavior of lipid lowering agent atorvastatin calcium in aqueous media and its determination from pharmaceutical dosage forms and biological fluids using boron-doped diamond and glassy carbon electrodes.

The electrochemical behavior of atorvastatin calcium at glassy carbon and boron-doped diamond electrodes has been studied using voltammetric techniques. The possible mechanism of oxidation was discussed with model compounds. The dependence of the peak current and potentials on pH, concentration, scan rate and nature of the buffer were investigated for both electrodes. The oxidation of atorvastatin was irreversible and exhibited a diffusion-controlled fashion on the diamond electrode. A linear response was obtained within the range of 9.65 x 10(-7) - 3.86 x 10(-5) M in 0.1 M H(2)SO(4) solution for both electrodes. The detection limits of a standard solution are estimated to be 2.11 x 10(-7) M with differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) and 2.05 x 10(-7)M with square wave voltammetry (SWV) for glassy carbon electrode, and 2.27 x 10(-7) M with DPV and 1.31 x 10(-7)M with SWV for diamond electrodes in 0.1 M H(2)SO(4) solution. The repeatability of the methods was found good for both electrodes. The methods were fully validated and successfully applied to the high-throughput determination of the drug in tablets, human serum and human urine with good recoveries.