The decomposition of benzodiazepines during analysis by capillary gas chromatography/mass spectrometry

A capillary gas chromatography column directly interfaced to a mass spectrometer was used for the analysis of sixteen benzodiazepines. The thermal stability of the drugs was found to be related to their chemical structure. Nine of the benzodiazepines were thermally unstable indicating that care should be taken in the interpretation of gas chromatographic data from this class of drugs. The unstable benzodiazepines were: ketazolam which decomposes to diazepam; N-4 oxides (chlordiazepoxide and demoxepam) which lose an oxygen radical; aromatic 7-nitro compounds (nitrazepam and clonazepam) which are partially reduced to the corresponding amine; alpha-hydroxy ketones (lorazepam and oxazepam) which decompose with the loss of water and N-methyl-alpha-hydroxy ketones (lormetazepam and temazepam) which partially decompose with the loss of a hydrogen molecule to produce the corresponding alpha, beta-diketones. Few problems were encountered in distinguishing the drugs by their mass spectra, the exceptions being ketazolam which decomposes to diazepam and demoxepam which decomposes to desmethyldiazepam. In general, good spectra were obtained from 20-50 ng of drug injected. However, for those compounds where the decompositions were not quantitative (nitrazepam, clonazepam, lormetazepam, temazepam) detection limits were poor.