Gas chromatographic determination of midazolam in low-volume plasma samples.
A gas chromatographic method for the sensitive determination of midazolam in plasma volumes as low as 40 microliters was developed, utilizing clinazolam as the internal standard. After liquid-liquid extraction at basic pH into 1-chlorobutane-dichloromethane (96:4) a 2- to 4-microliters portion of the reconstituted extract was injected under electronic pressure control onto a 12 m x 0.2 mm I.D. methyl silicone capillary column, and was exposed to a three-step temperature program from 120 to 310 degrees C, to separate the analytes from the plasma constituents. The compound of interest was identified and quantified by means of a mass-selective detector. The assay was linear from 10 to 500 ng/ml using 40 microliters of plasma (limit of quantification: 10 ng/ml) and was linear from 0.25 to 100 ng/ml using 500 microliters of plasma (limit of quantification: 0.25 ng/ml). The intra-day precision for the 40-microliters aliquots varied from 2.2 to 6.6%, the corresponding accuracy from -7.4 to -4.4%; the inter-day precision ranged from 5 to 7.2% and the corresponding accuracy from -7.2 to -5.1%.
Surfactant-assisted dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction of nitrazepam and lorazepam from plasma and urine samples followed by high-performance liquid chromatography with UV analysis.
Surfactant-assisted liquid-liquid microextraction followed by high-performance liquid chromatography with UV detection has been developed for the simultaneous preconcentration and determination of lorazepam and nitrazepam in biological fluids. In this study, an ionic surfactant (cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide) was used as an emulsifier. The predominant parameters affecting extraction efficiency such as the type and volume of extraction solvent, the type and concentration of surfactant, sample pH, and the concentration of salt added to the sample were investigated and opted. Under the optimum conditions (extraction solvent and its volume, 1-octanol, 70 μL; surfactant and its concentration, 1 mL of ultra-pure water containing 2 mmol L-1 cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide; sample pH = 9 and salt content of 10% NaCl w/v), the preconcentration factors were obtained in the range of 202-241 and 246-265 for nitrazepam and lorazepam, respectively. The limits of quantification for both drugs were 5 μg L-1 in water sample and 10 μg L-1 in biological fluids with R2 values higher than 0.993. The suitability of the proposed method was successfully confirmed by the extraction and determination of the target drugs in human urine and plasma samples in the range of microgram per liter.
“ PARTIALLY-ACTIVATED ” FLUX RESIDUE IMPACTS ON ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLY RELIABILITIES
The reliabilities of the flux residue of electronic assemblies and semiconductor packages are attracting more and more attention with the adoption of no-clean fluxes by majority of the industry. In recent years, the concern of “partiallyactivated” flux residue and their influence on reliability have been significantly raised due to the miniaturization along with high density design trend, selective soldering process adoption, and the expanded use of pallets in wave soldering process. When flux residue becomes trapped under low stand-off devices, pallets or unsoldered areas (e.g. selective process), it may contain unevaporated solvent, “live” activators and metal complex intermediates with different chemical composition and concentration levels depending on the thermal profiles. These partially-activated residues can directly impact the corrosion, surface insulation and electrochemical migration of the final assembly. In this study, a few application tests were developed internally to understand this issue. Two traditional liquid flux and two newly developed fluxes were selected to build up the basic models. The preliminary results also provide a scientific approach to design highly reliable products with the goal to minimize the reliability risk for the complex PCB designs and assembly processes.