Welcome to Edinburgh Instruments’ newest blog celebrating our work in Raman, Photoluminescence, and Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging. Every month we will highlight our pick for Map of the Month to show how our spectrometers can be used to reveal all the hidden secrets in your samples.
A transdermal patch is a method of drug delivery through the skin into the bloodstream. The patch contains a drug which absorbs into your skin when attached to you and it releases a consistent and controlled amount of medication into the body over long periods time. One of the most common uses for transdermal patches is to help combat nicotine addiction. This 3D Raman map reveals the patch contains 6 layers, the spectrum of each layer can be extracted and analysed for identification. The outer layers of the patch, layers 1 and 6, shown in red, can be identified as poly (ethylene terephthalate) (PET) using the KnowItAll® Raman Database. The 3D map is coloured based on peaks specific to the material identified, for example for the layers of PET the peak at 1293 cm-1 was selected. Layer 2 can be identified as PET/polyisobutylene, labelled in pink, based on the 1233 cm-1 peak and layers 3 and 5 which surround the API were determined to be polyethylene (PE), highlighted in blue from its peak at 1442 cm-1. Finally, in the middle of the polymers is a thick layer of the API, nicotine, embedded in polymer reservoir (ethylene).
Read the full application note to find out what each layer’s function is in the nicotine patch.
The RM5 Raman Microscope is a compact and fully automated Raman Microscope for analytical and research purposes. The truly confocal design is unique to the market and offers uncompromised spectral resolution, spatial resolution, and sensitivity. To find out how the RM5 can help with your research, please contact us.
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