Xylazine is a widely employed veterinary anesthetic that, in recent years, has also been used as a recreational drug, leading to several fatal and non-fatal intoxications. We present herein a comprehensive investigation of the electrochemical behavior of xylazine, followed by the quantification of this target analyte. Specifically, it has been found that xylazine oxidizes irreversibly on a glassy carbon electrode in ethanol/lithium perchlorate media, with an EC mechanism
the number of electrons involved in the process is equal to two. The oxidation pathway has been suggested and supported by a thorough electrochemical investigation, in which the behavior of the analyte has been compared with other model compounds. A quantitative method was then proposed, employing differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) for the determination of xylazine in real samples. The analytical figures of merits were computed from the calibration curves obtained by analyzing standard solutions of xylazine in ethanol/lithium perchlorate medium. A LOQ of 0.2 μg mL