Analysis of IV Drugs in the Hospital Workflow by Raman Spectroscopy: The Case of Piperacillin and Tazobactam

Medical errors associated with IV preparation and administration procedures in a hospital workflow can even cost human lives due to the direct effect they have on patients. A large number of such incidents, which have been reported in bibliography up to date, indicate the urgent need for their prevention. This study aims at proposing an analytical methodology for identifying and quantifying IV drugs before their administration, which has the potential to be fully harmonized with clinical practices. More specifically, it reports on the analysis of a piperacillin (PIP) and tazobactam (TAZ) IV formulation, using Raman spectroscopy. The simultaneous analysis of the two APIs in the same formulation was performed in three stages: before reconstitution in the form of powder without removing the substance out of the commercial glass bottle (non-invasively), directly after reconstitution in the same way, and just before administration, either the liquid drug is placed in the infusion set (on-line analysis) or a minimal amount of it is transferred from the IV bag to a Raman optic cell (at-line analysis). Except for the successful identification of the APIs in all cases, their quantification was also achieved through calibration curves with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.953 to 0.999 for PIP and from 0.965 to 0.997 for TAZ. In any case, the whole procedure does not need more than 10 min to be completed. The current methodology, based on Raman spectroscopy, outweighs other spectroscopic (UV/Vis, FT-IR/ATR) or chromatographic (HPLC, UHPLC) protocols, already applied, which are invasive, costly, time-consuming, not environmentally friendly, and require specialized staff and more complex sample preparation procedures, thus exposing the staff to hazardous materials, especially in cases of cytotoxic drugs. Such an approach has the potential to bridge the gap between experimental setup and clinical implementation through exploitation of already developed handheld devices, along with the presence of digital spectral libraries.

Surface Studies on Glass Powders Used in Commercial Glass-Ionomer Dental Cements

The surface properties of three commercial ionomer glass powders, i.e., Fuji IX, Kavitan Plus and Chemadent G-J-W were studied. Samples were analyzed by X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), and the density was determined by gas pycnometry. Morphology was studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and laser diffraction (LD) technique, whereas low-temperature nitrogen sorption measurements determined textural parameters like specific surface area and pore volume. Thermal transformations in the materials studied were evaluated by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), which was carried out in an inert atmosphere between 30 °C and 900 °C. XRF showed that Fuji IX and Kavitan Plus powders were strontium-based, whereas Chemadent G-J-W powder was calcium-based. Powders all had a wide range of particle sizes under SEM and LD measurements. Specific surface areas and pore volumes were in the range 1.42–2.73 m2/g and 0.0029 to 0.0083 cm3/g, respectively, whereas densities were in the range 2.6428–2.8362 g/cm3. Thermogravimetric analysis showed that the glass powders lost mass in a series of steps, with Fuji IX powder showing the highest number, some of which are attributed to the dehydration and decomposition of the polyacrylic acid present in this powder. Mass losses were more straightforward for the other two glasses. All three powders showed distinct losses at around 780 °C and 835 °C, suggesting that similar dehydration steps occur in all these glasses. Other steps, which differed between glass powders, are attributed to variations in states of water-binding on their surfaces.

Production of Porous Ceramic Materials from Spent Fluorescent Lamps

Spent fluorescent lamps (SFL) are classified as hazardous materials in the European Waste Catalogue, which includes residues from various hi-tech devices. The most common end-of-life treatment of SFL consists in the recovery of rare earth elements from the phosphor powders, with associated problems in the management of the glass residues, which are usually landfilled. This study involves the manufacturing of porous ceramics from both the coarse glass-rich fraction and the phosphor-enriched fraction of spent fluorescent lamps. These porous materials, realizing the immobilization of Rare Earth Elements (REEs) within a glass matrix, are suggested for application in buildings as thermal and acoustic insulators. The proposed process is characterized by: (i) alkaline activation (2.5 M or 1 M NaOH aqueous solution); (ii) pre-curing at 75 °C; (iii) the addition of a surfactant (Triton X-100) for foaming at high-speed stirring; (iv) curing at 45 °C; (v) viscous flow sintering at 700 °C. All the final porous ceramics present a limited metal leaching and, in particular, the coarse glass fraction activated with 2.5 M NaOH solution leads to materials comparable to commercial glass foams in terms of mechanical properties.

micro-Raman and micro-Photoluminescence study of ZnO thin films

We present the experimental results of optical analysis of nanostructured ZnO thin films grown onto commercial glass by reactive sputtering. Films with 20, 50, and 100 nm in thickness were analyzed by micro-Raman and micro-photoluminescence spectroscopies. Raman and photoluminescence bands were deconvoluted with Lorentzian profiles, in order to obtain information about response of films to excitation with laser light, occurring changes in position, full width half maximum (FWHM), and area of each phonon and emission bands of ZnO, correlating them with its nanostructure nature, and packing morphology of ZnO nanocolumns.

Eco-Compatible Construction Materials Containing Ceramic Sludge and Packaging Glass Cullet

This research reports results of eco-compatible building material obtained without natural raw materials. A mixture of sludge from a ceramic wastewater treatment plant and glass cullet from the urban collection was used to obtain high sintered products suitable to be used as covering floor/wall tiles in buildings. The fired samples were tested by water absorption, linear shrinkage, apparent density, and mechanical and chemical properties. Satisfactory results were achieved from densification properties and SEM/XRD analyses showed a compact polycrystalline microstructure with albite and wollastonite embedded in the glassy phase, similar to other commercial glass-ceramics. Besides, the products were obtained with a reduction of 200 °C with respect to the firing temperatures of commercial ones. Additionally, the realized materials were undergone to leaching test following Italian regulation to evaluate the mobility of hazardous ions present into the sludge. The data obtained verified that after thermal treatment the heavy metals were immobilized into the ceramic matrix without further environmental impact for the product use. The results of the research confirm that this valorization of matter using only residues produces glass ceramics high sintered suitable to be used as tile with technological properties similar or higher than commercial ones.

Effects of Reducing PbO Content on the Elastic and Radiation Attenuation Properties of Germanate Glasses: A New Non-toxic Candidate for Shielding Applications

This work presents a detailed study on the effects of reducing PbO content on the elastic and radiation shielding properties of germanate glasses described by the chemical formula 50GeO2-(50-x)PbO-xZnO, where x between 0 and 50 mol % with step of 10. A theoretical analysis based on Makishima-Mackenzie's theory (MM-theory) was employed to obtain the elastic moduli of the studied glass specimens. Moreover, the Monte Carlo simulations were applied via Geant4 platform to assess the radiation shielding ability of the GeO2-PbO-ZnO glass system by evaluating several fundamental properties such as gamma and neutron transmission factors, total cross sections, effective atomic numbers, 1/e penetration depths, and exposure buildup factors. We found that the bulk elastic modulus increased from 50.751 GPa to 85.389 GPa as the PbO content increased from 50 mol % to 0. The results of the linear attenuation coefficient show that the cross sections of (σ)PE, (σ)CE, and (σ)pp dominates the photon attenuation at 0.15 ≤ E ≤ 0.08; 0.8 < E < 8, and 8 < E < 15 MeV respectively. Moreover, the present glasses have superior photon absorbing capacity compared to ordinary and barite concrete; RS-253-G18 and RS-360 commercial glass shields. This suggests that the GeO2-PbO-ZnO glass system can be used as a non-toxic shielding material in the nuclear facilities.