Selective potentiometric sensors for the determination of butenafine hydrochloride in a cream formulation

•In situ screen printed (ISPE) and in situ carbon paste (ICPE) electrodes have been developed for selective determination of butenafine hydrochloride (BF.HCl) in pharmaceutical form.•The proposed sensors exhibited Nernstian response in the concentration range of 1.0 × 10-6–1.0 × 10-2 mol L-1of BF.HCl drug solution.•The topography of the surface of the proposed sensors was investigated using scanning electron microscopy to study the effect of in situ modification on the electrodes surface structure. In situ screen printed (ISPE) and in situ carbon paste (ICPE) electrodes have been developed for the selective determination of butenafine hydrochloride (BF.HCl) in pharmaceutical preparation. The construction and potentiometric characteristics of the proposed sensors were described. The proposed sensors exhibited Nernstian slopes of 60.30 ± 0.79 and 59.80 ± 0.96 mV decade−1 for ISPE (electrode I) and ICPE (electrode II), respectively, within a linear concentration range of 1.0 × 10−6–1.0 × 10−2 mol L−1 of BF.HCl drug solution and performed satisfactorily over wide pH ranges 3.0–8.5 and 2.5–7.0 with a relatively fast response time 3–4 and 7–8 s for ISPE (electrode I) and ICPE (electrode II), respectively. Also the proposed electrodes exhibited a relatively long operational lifetime of 72 and 42 days, for ISPE (electrode I) and the paste of ICPE (electrode II), respectively and they showed good discrimination ability for BF.HCl relative to numbers of interfering materials. The morphology of the surface of the proposed sensors was investigated using scanning electron microscopy to study the effect of in situ modification on the surface structure of the developed electrodes.