Elemental Imaging for Pharmaceutical Tablet Formulation Analysis by Micro X-ray Fluorescence

The analysis of the distribution of pharmaceutical materials in tablet formulations, such as drugs and matrix elements, is critical to product performance and is used in such areas as quality control, impurity testing, and process monitoring. Recently imaging techniques, such as Raman, near-IR, and fluorescence imaging, have become popular for “visualization” of pharmaceutical formulations, allowing for spatial and chemical composition information to be obtained simultaneously. These methods have been primarily focused on molecular imaging, or spatial analysis of the molecular characteristics of the tablet formulation. However, elemental species are also an important part of pharmaceuticals. Micro X-ray Fluorescence (MXRF) elemental imaging offers complementary information to molecular imaging techniques. In this study, MXRF was used for the elemental imaging of various commercial pharmaceutical drug and vitamin supplements. Specifically, elemental composition and heterogeneity were monitored for each different tablet.