Avoiding the False Negative Results in LC Method Robustness Testing by Modifications of the Algorithm of Dong and Dummy Factor Effects Approach

The algorithm of Dong and error estimation based on a priori declared negligible effects (dummy factor effects approach) were evaluated for testing robustness, in case they provide contradictory results. Robustness of LC method for separation of ropinirole and its impurity was determined. Plackett–Burman design was applied to unravel the significant/influential factors. Four selected responses (retention factor of ropinirole and impurity, selectivity and resolution) were analyzed by the standard algorithm of Dong and dummy factor effects approach. The interpretation of the results for retention factor of ropinirole and resolution was inconclusive, since the two applied approaches identified different significant factors. The potential false negative or false positive results were avoided reanalyzing the results by the modified approaches. Modification of the dummy factor effects approach included omitting the large dummy effects values, and modification of the algorithm of Dong included calculating the margin of error values for all different number of factors included, and then selecting the lowest one to be the critical effect. The applied reanalysis allowed final important factor identification and non-significant intervals for significant effects calculation.     

Manganese Dioxide Graphite Composite Electrodes Formed via a Low Temperature Method: Detection of Hydrogen Peroxide,Ascorbic Acid and Nitrite

Manganese dioxide modified carbon powder was prepared via a wet impregnation method from the solution of permanganate salt. After heating at 120 °C over night in air, the formation of manganese oxide was confirmed by cathodic stripping voltammetry. The synthesized material was used for fabrication of composite electrodes and their potential application in the field of electroanalysis investigated. The composite electrodes based on the manganese dioxide modified carbon powder proved to be useful as electrodes for detection of hydrogen peroxide, ascorbic acid and nitrite ions.     

Kinetics and mechanism of the substitution reactions of some bifunctional palladium(II) complexes with different nitrogen-donor heterocycles

Substitution reactions of three Pd(II) complexes, [Pd(cbdca)Cl₂]^2? (cbdca = cyclobutane-1,1-dicarboxylato), [Pd(ox)Cl₂]^2? (ox = oxalato) and [Pd(mal)Cl₂]^2? (mal = malonato), with different five- and six-membered N-heterocycles, such as pyrazole, 3-amino-4-iodo-pyrazole (pzI), 5-amino-4-bromo-3-methyl-pyrazole (pzBr), 1,2,4-triazole, pyrazine, imidazole, pyridazine and pyrimidine, were investigated in aqueous 0.10 M NaClO₄ with the presence of 20 mM NaCl using variable-temperature stopped-flow spectrophotometry. Substitution of these complexes occurs in two consecutive reversible steps, and their reactivity decreases in order [Pd(cbdca)Cl₂]^2? > [Pd(mal)Cl₂]^2? > [Pd(ox)Cl₂]^2?. The most reactive nucleophile among the five-membered heterocycles is imidazole, while pyridazine is the most reactive among the six-membered heterocycles. Activation parameters were determined for all reactions, and negative values for entropy of activation, ΔS^≠, support an associative mode of substitution. The reaction between [Pd(mal)Cl₂]^2? complex and pzBr was investigated by ¹H NMR, and the obtained results confirm that substitution with nitrogen-donor nucleophile does not lead to decomposition of the complex.     

Monoclinic structure and nonstoichiometry of `KAlSiO4‐O1'

Crystals of KAlSiO₄‐O1 (potassium aluminium silicate) were synthesized using a flux method and analysed utilizing single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction and electron microprobe analysis. Both methods confirm that the crystals are nonstoichiometric according to K_1−xAl_1−xSi_1+xO₄ with x = 0.04 (1). KAlSiO₄‐O1 is closely related to the stuffed derivatives of tridymite, although the topology of the Si/Al‐ordered framework is different. Six‐membered rings of UUDDUD and UUUDDD (U = up and D = down; ratio 2:1) configurations are present in layers parallel to the ab plane. In contrast, the framework of tridymite exhibits UDUDUD rings. The crystals are affected by inversion, pseudo‐orthorhombic and pseudo‐hexagonal twinning.     

Influence of the aryl substituent identity in 4-arylamino-3-nitrocoumarins on their thermal behavior

Thermal behavior of structurally similar 4-arylamino-3-nitrocoumarin derivatives substituted with different electron-donor and electron-acceptor substituents on the aryl side group was investigated. The thermal stability of these compounds was studied by non-isothermal thermo-gravimetric analysis, differential thermo-gravimetry, differential thermal analysis, and pyrolysis–gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. The thermal degradation of the three synthesized 4-arylamino-3-nitrocoumarins, possessing an iodine atom, a nitro or a methyl group, proceeds in three steps. The thermal stability of the coumarin derivative with the electron-donating methyl substituent is lower than that of the compounds with the electron-accepting nitro group or iodine atom. This least stable compound (4-[(4-methylphenyl)amino]-3-nitro-2H-chromen-2-one) was also characterized with the greatest loss in mass that accompanied the degradation, and all of the three degradation steps of this compound began at the lowest temperature in comparison to the other two.     

Quantitative determination of glycine in commercial dosage forms by kinetic spectrophotometry

A kinetic method for the determination of nanogram quantities of amino acid glycine (Gly) is described. The catalytic activity of cobalt in the reaction of oxidation of purpurin (1,2,4-trihydroxyantraquinone, PP) by hydrogen peroxide in alkaline buffer solution decreases in the presence of micro quantities of glycine. Operating conditions for the successful determination of glycine were optimized and yielded a theoretical detection limit of 6.5 ng/mL. Kinetic equations are proposed for the investigated process. The interference effects of certain foreign ions and amino acids upon the reaction rate were studied in order to assess the selectivity of the method. The procedure was successfully applied to the determination of glycine in various pharmaceutical samples. The unique features of this procedure are that the determination can be carried out rapidly at room temperature and analysis time is short. The procedure is simple, inexpensive and efficient for use in the analysis of a large number of samples. The article is published in the original.     

Demasking large dummy effects approach in revealing important interactions in Plackett–Burman experimental design

This paper presents a newly developed demasking large dummy effects (DDE) approach for identification of significant factor interactions in Plackett–Burman experimental design. Dummy factors, as imaginary factors, are not expected to contribute to the model, so the appearance of their high effect values could indicate the significance of the interactions they are confounded with. DDE approach consists of the screening of the large estimable effects, the calculation of the interactions that contribute the most to the large dummy effects from the alias matrix, and a single pass of all subsets regressions including preselected interactions and main factors for the final model tuning. Tested on experimentally obtained data from a robustness analysis of a method for the determination of raloxifene and its four impurities, DDE approach showed to create the models that have greater statistical power than the ones described with the main factors only, which makes them more reliable and accurate for the application. Additionally, because of the interactions selection criterion and final tuning phase of the strategy, DDE approach allows the creation of models that are likely to better describe the real systems, which increases the practical value. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Determination of carbamazepine and its impurities iminostilbene and iminodibenzyl in solid dosage form by column high-performance liquid chromatography

An accurate and precise RP-HPLC method was developed and validated for the determination of carbamazepine and its impurities iminostilbene and iminodibenzyl in a tablet formulation with fluphenazine as an internal standard. Buffer-methanol (50 + 50, v/v) was used as the mobile phase. During validation, specificity, linearity, precision, accuracy, LOD, LOQ, and robustness of the method were tested. The method was proven to be specific against placebo interference. Linearity was evaluated over the concentration range of 100-500, 0.05-0.25, and 0.1-0.5 microg/mL, and the r values were 0.9994, 0.9997, and 0.9979 for carbamazepine, iminostilbene, and iminodibenzyl, respectively. Intraday precision of the method was good, and RSD was below 2% for all analytes. The accuracy of the method ranged from 100.69 to 102.10, 99.76 to 102.66, and 99.26 to 100.08% for carbamazepine, iminostilbene, and iminodibenzyl, respectively. LOD was 0.0125, 0.025, and 0.05 microg/mL and LOQ was 0.05, 0.05, and 0.1 microg/mL for carbamazepine, iminostilbene, and iminodibenzyl, respectiviely. Robustness of the method was proven by using a chemometric approach. The method was successfully applied to the analysis of commercially available carbamazepine tablets and showed good repeatability, with RSD below 2%.     

Electrochemical properties and square-wave voltammetric determination of pravastatin

The electrochemical reduction and adsorptive voltammetric behaviour of pravastatin have been studied by means of cyclic and square-wave voltammetry at a hanging mercury-drop electrode in electrolytes of different pH. Within the entire pH range (2.0–9.0) in Britton–Robinson buffer, pravastatin gave rise to a single voltammetric peak in the potential interval from −1.22 to −1.44 V, depending on pravastatin concentration. It was found that the reduction of pravastatin proceeds via a relatively stable intermediate, which is transformed to the final electroinactive product by a coupled chemical reaction or can be re-oxidized back to pravastatin. The rate of chemical transformation is controlled by the proton concentration. The electrode mechanism has the properties of a surface redox reaction. A sensitive analytical method for trace analysis of pravastatin based on the adsorptive stripping technique has been developed. The calibration plot was linear in the range 8×10⁻⁸–5×10⁻⁷ mol L⁻¹. Application of the square-wave voltammetric method to determination of pravastatin in a pharmaceutical dosage form, without sample pretreatment, resulted in acceptable deviation from the stated concentration.     

Assessment of β-lactams retention in hydrophilic interaction chromatography applying Box-Behnken design

In this paper, the retention prediction models for mixture of β-lactam antibiotics analyzed by hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC) are presented. The aim of the study was to investigate the retention behavior of some organic acids and amphoteric compounds including cephalosporins (cefotaxime, cefalexin, cefaclor, cefuroxime, and cefuroxime axetil) and penicillins (ampicillin and amoxicillin). Retention of substances with acidic functional group in HILIC is considered to be interesting since the majority of publications in literature are related to basic compounds. In the beginning of the study, classical silica columns were chosen for the retention analysis. Then, preliminary study was done and factors with the most significant influence on the retention factors were selected. These factors with the impact on the retention factors were investigated employing Box-Behnken design as a tool. On the basis of the obtained results the mathematical models were created and tested using ANOVA test and finally verified. This approach enables the presentation of chromatographic retention in many ways (three-dimensional (3-D) graphs and simple two-dimensional graphical presentations). All of these gave the possibility to predict the chromatographic retention under different conditions. Furthermore, regarding the structure of the analyzed compounds, the potential retention mechanisms in HILIC were suggested.