Determination of N-acetylcysteine in pharmaceutical samples by flow injection

Abstract

Two flow injection (FI) methods, involving spectrophotometric detection, are proposed for the determination of N-acetylcysteine (NAC). Both methods are based on the formation of a yellow complex between NAC and Pd^II in a medium of 1 mol dm^–3 HCl. In the first method, which is based on the conventional Fl technique, NAC is determined over the range 5 × 10^–5–5 × 10^–3 mol dm^–3, and in the second, in which the doublet-peak Fl mode is used, the working range is extended (5 × 10^–5–5 × 10^–2 mol dm^–3). The Fl methods were applied to the determination of NAC in pharmaceutical samples.