Computational Spectroscopy Lab

Insights into phase stability of anhydrous-hydrate systems: a Raman-based methodology.

Abstract

FT-Raman spectroscopy turns out to be a powerful technique to evaluate the amount of polymorphic and pseudopolymorphic forms in crystalline samples – which is particularly relevant in pharmaceutical sciences. This paper presents a methodology that allows successful quantitative evaluation of the solid-state hydration and dehydration processes, using FT-Raman spectroscopy. All the steps required for a reliable evaluation of the hydration/dehydration process are illustrated for the caffeine system, a particularly challenging system presenting limited spectral differences between the pseudopolymorphs. The hydration process of caffeine was found to occur in a single-step process with a half-life time of ca 13 h, while the dehydration occurs through a two-step mechanism. The critical relative humidity was found to be at ca 81 and 42% for anhydrous and hydrate caffeine forms, respectively.

Nolasco, Mariela; Amado, Ana; Ribeiro-Claro, Paulo.