Quantitative nuclear magnetic resonance of chloride by an accurate internal standard approach.

Chloride is the most common counterion used to improve aqueous solubility and enhance stability of small molecule active pharmaceutical ingredients. While several analytical techniques, such as titration, HPLC with charged aerosol detection, and ion chromatography, are currently utilized to assay the level of chloride, they have notable limitations, and these instruments may not be readily available. Here, we present a generally applicable Cl solution NMR method to assay the level of chloride in pharmaceutical compounds. The method uses KClO as an internal standard for improved accuracy in comparison with external standard methods, and it was found to be robust, linear over three orders of magnitude, precise (<3% RSD), and accurate (<0.5% absolute error).