Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy-based investigation and classification of pharmaceutical tablets using multivariate chemometric analysis

We report the effectiveness of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) in probing the content of pharmaceutical tablets and also investigate its feasibility for routine classification. This method is particularly beneficial in applications where its exquisite chemical specificity and suitability for remote and on site characterization significantly improves the speed and accuracy of quality control and assurance process. Our experiments reveal that in addition to the presence of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen, which can be primarily attributed to the active pharmaceutical ingredients, specific inorganic atoms were also present in all the tablets. Initial attempts at classification by a ratiometric approach using oxygen (∼777 nm) to nitrogen (742.36 nm, 744.23 nm and 746.83 nm) compositional values yielded an optimal value at 746.83 nm with the least relative standard deviation but nevertheless failed to provide an acceptable classification. To overcome this bottleneck in the detection process, two chemometric algorithms, i.e. principal component analysis (PCA) and soft independent modeling of class analogy (SIMCA), were implemented to exploit the multivariate nature of the LIBS data demonstrating that LIBS has the potential to differentiate and discriminate among pharmaceutical tablets. We report excellent prospective classification accuracy using supervised classification via the SIMCA algorithm, demonstrating its potential for future applications in process analytical technology, especially for fast on-line process control monitoring applications in the pharmaceutical industry.