A Static Headspace Gas Chromatography Method for Quantitation of Residual Solvents in Nanoformulations

Various organic solvents are widely used in the manufacturing, processing, and purification of drug substances, drug products, formulations, excipients, etc. These solvents must be removed to the lowest amount permitted, as they do not possess any therapeutic advantages and may cause undesirable toxicities. Therefore, a rapid and sensitive analytical method for the quantitation of residual solvents is needed. The following chapter presents a static headspace gas chromatographic (HSGC) method for determining the concentration of common residual solvents in various nanoformulations. An efficient and sensitive HSGC method has been developed using PerkinElmer's headspace autosampler/gas chromatographic system with a flame ionization detector (FID) and validated according to the International Conference for Harmonization (ICH) guideline Q3C. The method validation indicates that the method is specific, linear, accurate, precise, and sensitive for the analyzed solvents. The method is suitable for the analysis of 13 residual solvents (methanol, ethanol, acetone, diethyl ether, 2-propanol, acetonitrile, 1-propanol, ethyl acetate, tetrahydrofuran, dichloromethane, chloroform, 1-butanol, and pyridine) and utilizes an Elite 624 Crossbond 6% cyanopropylphenyl, 94% dimethylpolysiloxanes column with helium as a carrier gas.