Colorimetric detection of cephradine in pharmaceutical formulations via fluorosurfactant-capped gold nanoparticles

The aggregation of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) capped with nonionic fluorosurfactant (FSN) could be induced rapidly and selectively by cephradine degradation products, but not by cephradine and other excipients in pharmaceutical formulations. A new detection method for cephradine has been developed based on the cephradine degradation products-induced aggregation of the GNPs. The present approach offers various advantages, such as simplicity and high selectivity. Under optimum conditions, the lowest detectable concentration of cephradine through this approach (S/N = 3) is 0.8 μg mL−1. The calibration curve was linear over the range of 2.0–10.0 μg mL−1 for the detection of cephradine. The recoveries of cephradine were found to fall in the range between 97% and 105%. We have validated the applicability of our method through the analyses of cephradine in pharmaceutical formulations. Good agreements were obtained for the determination of cephradine between the present approach and official method.