Using terahertz pulsed spectroscopy to quantify pharmaceutical polymorphism and crystallinity

Clare J. Strachan, Philip F. Taday, David A. Newnham, Keith C. Gordon, J. Axel Zeitler, Michael Pepper, Thomas Rades*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

362 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Terahertz pulsed spectroscopy (TPS) is a new technique that is capable of eliciting rich information when investigating pharmaceutical materials. In solids, it probes long-range crystalline lattice vibrations and low energy torsion and hydrogen bonding vibrations. These properties make TPS potentially an ideal tool to investigate crystallinity and polymorphism. In this study four drugs with different solid-state properties were analyzed using TPS and levels of polymorphism and crystallinity were quantified. Carbamazepine and enalapril maleate polymorphs, amorphous, and crystalline indomethacin, and thermotropic liquid crystalline and crystalline fenoprofen calcium mixtures were quantified using partial least-squares analysis. Root-mean-squared errors of cross validation as low as 0.349% and limits of detection as low as approximately 1% were obtained, demonstrating that TPS is an analytical technique of potential in quantifying solid-state properties of pharmaceutical compounds.

Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Volume94
Issue number4
Pages (from-to)837-846
Number of pages10
ISSN0022-3549
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2005

Keywords

  • Amorphous
  • Carbamazepine
  • Crystallinity
  • Enalapril maleate
  • Fenoprofen calcium
  • Indomethacin
  • Infrared spectroscopy
  • Partial least squares
  • Polymorphism

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