Convenient method of simultaneously analyzing aluminum and magnesium in pharmaceutical dosage forms using californium-252 thermal neutron activation.

A commercial antacid suspension containing aluminum hydroxide and magnesium hydroxide products was used as a model sample to study the use of a californium-252 thermal neutron activation as a method for quantifying aluminum content as well as for the simultaneous assay of aluminum and magnesium. A 3.5-micrograms californium-252 source was used for the activation, and the induced aluminum-28 and magnesium-27 activity was simultaneously measured by sodium iodide crystal gamma-ray spectrometry using dual single-channel analyzers and scalers. The antacid suspension was contained in a chamber designed with the unique capability of serving as the container for counting the induced radioactivity in addition to being the irradiation chamber itself. Ten replicate irradiations were performed, and the precision was compared with 10 replicate analyses of the antacid suspension using the official ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid titration method. For aluminum the precision was 1.4 versus 0.62% for the titration method. For the magnesium the precision was 5.3 versus 0.79% for the titration method. This pilot study demonstrated that use of more intense californium-252 sources, which are commonly available, would provide a method that is competitive with the ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid titration method in precision and in other aspects as well.