(663d) Physical and Structural Property Characterizations of Pharmaceutical Materials with Synchrotron-Based Techniques

Pharmaceutical materials are often characterized as being crystalline or amorphous based on the presence or absence of sharp diffraction peaks in the X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern respectively. In crystal drugs, the destruction of three-dimensional periodicity will produce novel properties which have attracted increasing interest in pharmaceutical applications of amorphous solids. It is known that there will be phase transformation once the pharmaceutical materials are exposed to different processes such as milling, mixing, compression, heating, aging, or introducing binders, diluents and solvents. Therefore, a fundamental understanding of structural properties of pharmaceutical materials and structure-function relationships of these materials is critical to better benefit human health from pharmaceuticals. In this talk, synchrotron-based X-ray diffraction technique is used for the structural determinations of pharmaceutical materials. Pair distribution function (PDF) and Rietveld analysis are done to determine phase quantification, and strain over many pharmaceutical samples processed differently. In situ time resolved X-ray diffraction technique is also used to investigate phase changes and solid state reactions during the heating or cooling processes.