Diclofenac on boron-doped diamond electrode: from electroanalytical determination to prediction of the electrooxidation mechanism with HPLC-ESI/HRMS and computational simulations.

Using square-wave voltammetry coupled to the boron-doped diamond electrode (BDDE), it was possible to develop an analytical methodology for identification and quantification of diclofenac (DCL) in tablets and synthetic urine. The electroanalytical procedure was validated, with results being statistically equal to those obtained by chromatographic standard method, showing linear range of 4.94 × 10(-7) to 4.43 × 10(-6) mol L(-1), detection limit of 1.15 × 10(-7) mol L(-1), quantification limit of 3.85 × 10(-7) mol L(-1), repeatability of 3.05% (n = 10), and reproducibility of 1.27% (n = 5). The association of electrochemical techniques with UV-vis spectroscopy, computational simulations and HPLC-ESI/HRMS led us to conclude that the electrooxidation of DCL on the BDDE involved two electrons and two protons, where the products are colorful and easily hydrolyzable dimers. Density functional theory calculations allowed to evaluate the stability of dimers A, B, and C, suggesting dimer C was more stable than the other two proposed structures, ca. 4 kcal mol(-1). The comparison of the dimers stabilities with the stabilities of the molecular ions observed in the MS, the compounds that showed retention time (RT) of 15.53, 21.44, and 22.39 min were identified as the dimers B, C, and A, respectively. Corroborating the observed chromatographic profile, dimer B had a dipole moment almost twice higher than that of dimers A and C. As expected, dimer B has really shorter RT than dimers A and C. The majority dimer was the A (71%) and the C (19.8%) should be the minority dimer. However, the minority was the dimer B, which was formed in the proportion of 9.2%. This inversion between the formation proportion of dimer B and dimer C can be explained by preferential conformation of the intermediaries (cation-radicals) on the surface.