Abstract: A sensitive flow-injection chemiluminescence method was developed for the determination of biotin in the pharmaceutical formulations. The affinity between avidin and biotin was used to adsorb biotin on the polystyrene, with subsequent quantification of biotin based on its ability to enhance the chemiluminescence(CL) signal generated by the redox reaction of potassium permanganate-luminol-CdTe nanoparticles CL system. The investigations prove that apart from 3-aminophthalate, the CdTe quantum dots(QDs) play both catalytic and emitter roles. Under optimum conditions, the linear range for the determination of biotin was 0.01-25ng/mL with a detection limit of 7.3?10^-3 ng/mL(S/N=3). The relative standard deviation of 5 ng/L biotin was 2.06%(n=7). The proposed method was used to determine the biotin concentration in the pharmaceutical formulations and the recovery was between 96.4% and 104%. The proposed method is simple, convenient, rapid and sensitive.

Key words: Flow-injection, Chemiluminescence, Biotin, CdTe nanoparticle