SnO2 nanostructure based electroanalytical approach for simultaneous monitoring of vitamin C and vitamin B6 in pharmaceuticals

Vitamins are considered as the essential nutrients because they perform vital role for normal metabolism and healthy growth. Our body cannot synthesize vitamins, therefore, they must be taken through a balanced diet because their deficiency can cause several diseases. A number of pharmaceutical formulations are available containing a range of vitamins. It is important to determine vitamin content from them through easy and efficient method. This study reports the simultaneous determination of two important water-soluble vitamins (vitamin C and B6) from multivitamin tablets with high accuracy and high sensitivity. The work is conducted in two phases; first includes the synthesis of tin oxide (SnO2) nanoparticles via aqueous chemical growth method and their characterization through Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Energy-Dispersive X-ray (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). While second part include simultaneous electrochemical determination of vitamin C and B6 from multivitamin tablets. The cyclic voltammetry was used for the development of new method using SnO2/GCE modified electrode. In CV, two well resolved peaks obtained under optimized conditions which confirm that both vitamins can be determined at the same time. The modified electrode based on SnO2 nanoparticles was successfully applied for the determination of vitamin C and vitamin B6 in pharmaceutical samples with the limit of detection of 0.067 µM for VC, 0.048 µM for B6 respectively.