Solid-state Mechanical Properties of Crystalline Drugs and Excipients

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-2012

Publication Title

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry

Abstract

Thermal mechanical analysis (TMA) of crystalline drugs and excipients in their pre-melt temperature range performed in this study corroborate their newly found linear dielectric conductivity properties with temperature. TMA of crystalline active pharmacy ingredients (APIs) or excipients shows softening at 30–100 °C below the calorimetric melting phase transition, which is also observed by dielectric analysis (DEA). Acetophenetidin melts at 135 °C as measured calorimetrically by DSC, but softens under a low mechanical stress at 95 °C. At this pre-melting temperature, the crystals collapse under the applied load, and the TMA probe shows rapid displacement. The mechanical properties yield a softening structure and cause a dimensionally slow disintegration resulting in a sharp dimensional change at the melting point. In order to incorporate these findings into a structure–property relationship, several United States Pharmacopeia (USP) melting-point standard drugs were evaluated by TMA, DSC, and DEA, and compared to the USP standard melt temperatures. The USP standard melt temperature for vanillin (80 °C) [1], acetophenetidin (135 °C) [2], and caffeine (235 °C) [3] are easily verified calorimetrically via DSC. The combined thermal analysis techniques allow for a wide variety of the newly discovered physical properties of drugs and excipients.

DOI

10.1007/s10973-011-1859-0

Volume

108

Issue

1

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