Determination of silver sulfadiazine degradation products in several stress media was carried out by high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) with diode array detector (DAD) and hybrid mass spectrometer triple quadrupole-linear trap. The optimal chromatographic method used a Hypercarb column with a stationary phase 100% carbon, a mobile phase composed by a mixture 45:55 formic acid 1% solution and acetonitrile and detection at 275 nm. Structure elucidation was carried out on the mass spectrometry system using same chromatographic conditions and based on MS/MS techniques. Under these conditions up to 9 possible impurities were demonstrated to be degradation products respecting silver sulfadiazine evolution under different stress conditions: temperature, acid, basic, oxidation, reduction and catalyzed photodegradation. Sulfacetamide, sulfanilic acid (4-aminobenzenesulfonic acid), aniline, pyrimidin-2-amine, 4-aminobenzenesulfonamide, 4-methylidenesulfanilaniline, 4-aminophenol, 4-amino-n-methyl benzenesulfonamide and benzenesulfonic acid were identified by mass spectrometry in order to cover the possible degradation paths of silver sulfadiazine. Kinetics were also evaluated to obtain the prediction of shelf life of the substance. The linearity domain for the method was between 0.0005 mg/ml and 0.25mg/ml for each compound. Recovery factors in accuracy determination were between 95 and 105% relative to target concentrations of silver sulfadiazine and the quantitation limit was 0.00025 mg/ml.
Keywords: Degradation study; HPLC–MS/MS; Silver sulfadiazine; Sulfadiazine impurities.
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