Studies of the thermal degradation of acetaminophen using a conventional HPLC approach and electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry.

The thermal degradation of acetaminophen is studied via conventional accelerated aging studies by initially thermally stressing the compound at temperatures between 160 degrees C and 190 degrees C and measuring the rate of decomposition by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography. Rates of decomposition of the compound in the dry state and the activation energy for the process are determined and compared with previously published kinetic and thermodynamic data for the degradation of acetaminophen in solution. In addition, the thermal fragmentation of acetaminophen under electrospray ionization (ESI) conditions using an interface with a heated capillary inlet is studied and the apparent activation energy for this process also is characterized. A comparison of the data shows that acetaminophen is significantly more stable in the dry state than in solution. However, the gas-phase fragmentation of acetaminophen under ESI conditions occurs more readily than either dry- or solution-state degradation. Although the resulting electrospray fragmentation mimics the breakdown product that is formed when the compound undergoes either acid or base catalyzed hydrolysis in aqueous solutions, the mechanism that produces the fragment ion appears to involve a two-step process. Initially, the parent ion forms of the analyte are produced in the spray region of the interface followed by wall-catalyzed decomposition and re-ionization in the heated inlet capillary of the spectrometer.