Chemically prepared silver electrode for determination of N-acetyl-L-cysteine by flow-injection potentiometry

This paper describes the use of the silver electrode by means of chemical pretreatment of the electrode surface with mercuric(II) chloride solution and potassium iodide solution in flow injection analysis (FIA). The electrode is used as a potentiometric sensor for the indirect determination of NAC in a carrier stream containing iodine. A one-channel flow system that consists of a peristaltic pump, injection valve, a silver wire electrode and a saturated calomel reference electrode (SCE) was used. Some typical FIA parameters such as flow rate, tube length and composition of the carrier stream were varied. The electrode is further characterised by a constant linear response within the concentration range for NAC between 4.0 x 10(-6) and 1.0 x 10(-3) M at the slope of 60.6 +/- 1.0 mV/p(NAC). Some pharmaceutical products containing NAC were also tested. These results can be compared to the results obtained by the direct potentiometric titrations with silver nitrate and are also in good agreement with values declared by pharmaceutical manufacturers.