Determination of diphenhydramine by capillary electrophoresis with tris(2,2′-bipyridyl)ruthenium(II) electrochemiluminescence detection

Tris(2,2′-bipyridyl)ruthenium(II) electrochemiluminescence detection in a capillary electrophoresis separation system was used for the determination of diphenhydramine. In this study, platinum disk electrode (300 μm in diameter) was used as a working electrode and the influence of applied potential and buffer conditions were investigated. Under optimal conditions: 1.2 V applied potential, pH 8.50, 15 kV separation voltage and 10 mmol l−1 running buffer, the calibration curve of diphenhydramine was linear over the range of 4×10−8 to 1×10−5 mol l−1. This technique gave satisfactory precision, and relative standard deviations of migration times and chemiluminescence peak intensities were less than 1 and 6%, respectively. The technique was applied to animal studies for determination of diphenhydramine extracted from rabbit plasma and urine samples, and the extraction efficiency were between 92 and 98.5%.