Development of a quantitative approach based on surface-enhanced Raman chemical imaging (SER-CI)

During the last decade, Raman imaging has taken an important place in the pharmaceutical field [1-2]. It enables to acquire a visual representation of samples while quantifying and identifying molecules of these samples. However, this technique suffers from a lack of sensitivity and the appearance of fluorescence which can limit its pharmaceutical applications. One way to circumvent these limitations is Surface Enhanced Raman chemical imaging (SER-CI) which presents the advantages of Raman imaging and enables to dramatically increase the Raman scattering of molecules adsorbed or very close to metallic surfaces [3]. The number of publications regarding SER-CI in the pharmaceutical field is very limited probably due to the well-known stability and reproducibility problem of SERS and also due to the difficulty to obtain a homogeneous colloids covering of samples surface before SER-CI analyses.
In this context, the possibility to develop a quantitative approach using SER-CI on a pharmaceutical model, presented as paracetamol tablet, was studied. The aim was to develop a SER-CI method enabling to quantify 4-aminophenol (4-AP), which is the main impurity of paracetamol actively research for its toxicity, at a concentration below its limit of specification of 1000 ppm [4].
This pharmaceutical model was first investigated using SERS and a quantitative method enabling to quantify 4-AP from 3 to 15 µg mL-1 was developed and validated [5]. Based on these previous results, the possibility to develop quantitative approach to quantify 4-aminophenol in paracetamol tablet using SER-CI was investigated. Different ways to cover the tablets surface by silver colloids were tested and a homogeneity study was performed in order to improve the repeatability of SER-CI analyses. Afterwards, the SER-CI approach was optimized and different spectral intensity normalizations were tested. Finally, a quantitative approach using SER-CI was developed enabling to quantify 4-AP from 0.025% to 0.2% (w/w) in paracetamol tablets.