Indirect determination of adrenaline by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry

Abstract

A method is described for the determination of adrenaline indirectly by ICP-AES. Adrenaline forms a 2:1 complex with copper(II) ion that is slightly soluble in water and can be extracted with chloroform in the presence of Capriquat N263. The extract was evaporated to dryness and dissolved in hydrochloric acid, then copper(II) was determined by ICP-AES. This method has been used for the determination of adrenaline at levels from 1 × 10^–4 to 1 × 10^–2M. The detection limit of 1.23 × 10^–6M and a relative standard deviation of about 2.9% was obtained using the Cu 324.7-nm line. The recoveries of adrenaline were 94–104%.