Issue 13, 2019

The use of biocompatible crystalline substrates for the heterogeneous nucleation and polymorphic selection of indomethacin

Abstract

A heteroepitaxial nucleation approach was applied to control the nucleation rates and to selectively nucleate a single form of indomethacin (IMC). Six organic functional crystalline substrates, L-glutamic acid (GLU), L-threonine (THR), allantoin (ALT), xanthine (XAN), biotin (BIO) and L-histidine (HIS) were selected as substrates. The efficacy of each substrate in promoting the nucleation of IMC was examined with a high throughput microscopic method. The polymorphic selectivity of each substrate towards the stable γ-form and the metastable α-form of IMC was investigated with a combination of microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and powder X-ray diffraction. Induction experiments in ethanol demonstrated that all used substrates were highly effective in enhancing the nucleation rates of IMC. GLU showed complete selectivity towards the formation of γ-IMC, and HIS increased the phase selectivity towards the metastable form by 33% compared to the homogeneous nucleation in ethanol. The combinatorial effect of the presence of HIS and supersaturation of the solvent in promoting the polymorphic selection towards the metastable form was also investigated. Furthermore, Raman spectroscopy-based crystal face indexing was conducted to identify the in contact faces for the substrate and IMC and demonstrated that the major driving force for phase selective epitaxial growth in these organic molecular systems is the level of the functional group match at the substrate–solute interface.

Graphical abstract: The use of biocompatible crystalline substrates for the heterogeneous nucleation and polymorphic selection of indomethacin

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
06 Sep 2018
Accepted
02 Jan 2019
First published
11 Jan 2019

CrystEngComm, 2019,21, 2193-2202

The use of biocompatible crystalline substrates for the heterogeneous nucleation and polymorphic selection of indomethacin

T. K. Wijethunga, X. Chen, A. S. Myerson and B. L. Trout, CrystEngComm, 2019, 21, 2193 DOI: 10.1039/C8CE01517A

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements