A methodological inter-comparison study on the detection of surface contaminant sodium dodecyl sulfate applying ambient- and vacuum-based techniques

• Published in: Analytical and bioanalytical chemistry 2019, Vol.411 (1), p.217-229
• Main Authors: Giovannozzi, Andrea M., Hornemann, Andrea, Pollakowski-Herrmann, Beatrix, Green, Felicia M., Gunning, Paul, Salter, Tara L., Steven, Rory T., Bunch, Josephine, Portesi, Chiara, Tyler, Bonnie J., Beckhoff, Burkhard, Rossi, Andrea Mario
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Ablation; Analytical Chemistry; Biochemistry; Biomedical materials; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemical properties; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Chromatography; Contaminants; Contamination; Food Science; High density polyethylenes; Hip; Ions; Laboratory Medicine; Linings; Manufacturing; Mass spectrometry; Mass spectroscopy; Mathematical analysis; Medical device industry; Medical equipment; Medical technology; Methods; Mimicry; Monitoring/Environmental Analysis; Organic chemistry; Process controls; Process management; Raman spectroscopy; Reference materials; Research Paper; Scientific imaging; Sodium; Sodium dodecyl sulfate; Sodium lauryl sulfate; Spectroscopy; Substrates; Sulfates; Surfactants; Trace analysis; Vacuum; X ray spectra; X-ray fluorescence
• ISSN: 1618-2642; 1618-2650
• DOI: 10.1007/s00216-018-1431-x

Biomedical devices are complex products requiring numerous assembly steps along the industrial process chain, which can carry the potential of surface contamination. Cleanliness has to be analytically assessed with respect to ensuring safety and efficacy. Although several analytical techniques are routinely employed for such evaluation, a reliable analysis chain that guarantees metrological traceability and quantification capability is desirable. This calls for analytical tools that are cascaded in a sensible way to immediately identify and localize possible contamination, both qualitatively and quantitatively. In this systematic inter-comparative approach, we produced and characterized sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) films mimicking contamination on inorganic and organic substrates, with potential use as reference materials for ambient techniques, i.e., ambient mass spectrometry (AMS), infrared and Raman spectroscopy, to reliably determine amounts of contamination. Non-invasive and complementary vibrational spectroscopy techniques offer a priori chemical identification with integrated chemical imaging tools to follow the contaminant distribution, even on devices with complex geometry. AMS also provides fingerprint outputs for a fast qualitative identification of surface contaminations to be used at the end of the traceability chain due to its ablative effect on the sample. To absolutely determine the mass of SDS, the vacuum-based reference-free technique X-ray fluorescence was employed for calibration. Convex hip liners were deliberately contaminated with SDS to emulate real biomedical devices with an industrially relevant substance. Implementation of the aforementioned analytical techniques is discussed with respect to combining multimodal technical setups to decrease uncertainties that may arise if a single technique approach is adopted. Graphical abstract ᅟ