Flow injection determination of benzhexol based on its sensitizing effect on the chemiluminescent reaction of Ce(IV)–sulfite

In this paper, a novel chemiluminescent (CL) method for the determination of benzhexol has been developed by combining the flow injection technique and its sensitizing effect on the weak CL reaction between sulfite and acidic cerium(IV). A mechanism for the CL reaction has been proposed on the basis of CL spectra. Under the optimized conditions, the proposed method allows the measurement of benzhexol hydrochloride over the range 0.1–10 μg/mL with a correlation coefficient of 0.9992 (n = 8), a detection limit of 0.02 μg/mL (3σ), and a relative standard deviation for 2.0 μg/mL benzhexol (n = 11) of 1.65%. The utility of this method was demonstrated by determining benzhexol hydrochloride in tablets. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.