Determination of pipemidic acid based on flow-injection chemiluminescence due to energy transfer from peroxynitrous acid synthesized on-line.

A flow-injection chemiluminescence (CL) method for the determination of pipemidic acid is described. It is based on energy transfer from excited state peroxynitrous acid to pipemidic acid, in which the excited state peroxynitrous acid is synthesized on-line by the mixing of acid hydrogen peroxide with nitrite in a flow system and the CL is from two excited states of pipemidic acid. The proposed method allows the measurement of pipemidic acid over the range of 2.0 x 10(-7)-2.0 x 10(-5) mol l(-1) . The detection limit is 6.3 x 10(-8) mol l(-1), and the relative standard deviation for 2.0 x 10(-6) mol l(-1) pipemidic acid (n = 9) is 0.9%. This method was evaluated by the analysis of pipemidic acid in pharmaceutical preparations.