Determination of Cyanide in Blood Using Differential Pulse Voltammetry

Cyanide is present in two major forms such as sodium cyanide (NaCN) and potassium cyanide (KCN) and is highly toxic. Cyanide is the inhibitor of cytochrome C oxidase. Most hazardous compound is hydrocyanic acid that can be inhaled as gas at ambient room temperature. Oral ingestion of cyanide in liquid and solid form i.e. 200 mg or inhalation of 270 ppm in air causes death within minutes. Cyanide in body fluid can be determined using spectrophotometric techniques which are very time consuming and requires lot of sample pre-treatment. An attempt has been made to develop the new method for determination cyanide in blood using Multi Mode electrode in differential pulse voltammetry. Blood was processed using microwave assisted closed vessel digestion using 35% nitric acid and ultrapure water. The buffer of pH 10.2 was used with a sweep rate of 0.01V/s and pulse amplitude 0.05V by HMDE by standard addition method. The solution was stirred during pre-electrolysis at 0.00 V for purge time of 300 seconds from 0.00V to -0.500V.