Spectroscopic studies on photodegradation of atorvastatin calcium

In this work, the photodegradation process of atorvastatin calcium (ATC) is reported as depending on: (1) the presence and the absence of excipients in the solid state; (2) the chemical interaction of ATC with phosphate buffer (PB) having pH equal to 7 and 8; and (3) hydrolysis reaction of ATC in the presence of aqueous solution of NaOH. The novelty of this work consists in the monitoring of the ATC photodegradation by photoluminescence (PL). The exposure of ATC in solid state to UV light induces the photo-oxygenation reactions in the presence of water vapors and oxygen from air. According to the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic studies, we demonstrate that the photo-oxygenation reaction leads to photodegradation compounds having a high share of C=O bonds compared to ATC before exposure to UV light. Both in the presence of PB and NaOH, the photodegradation process of ATC is highlighted by a significant decrease in the intensity of the PL and photoluminescence excitation (PLE) spectra. According to PLE spectra, the exposure of ATC in the presence of NaOH to UV light leads to the appearance of a new band in the spectral range 340–370 nm, this belonging to the photodegradation products. Arguments concerning the chemical compounds, that resulted in this last case, are shown by Raman scattering and FTIR spectroscopy.