TY - JOUR A1 - Heilmann, Maria A1 - Simões, R. G. A1 - Bernardes, C. E. S. A1 - Ramisch, Yen A1 - Bienert, Ralf A1 - Röllig, Matthias A1 - Emmerling, Franziska A1 - Minas da Piedade, M. E. T1 - Real-Time In situ XRD Study of Simvastatin Crystallization in Levitated Droplets JF - Crystal Growth & Design N2 - Simvastatin (SV) is an important active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) for treatment of hyperlipidemias, which is known to exist in different crystalline and amorphous phases. It is, therefore, an interesting model to investigate how the outcome of evaporative crystallization in the contactless environment of an acoustically levitated droplet may be influenced by key experimental conditions, such as temperature, solvent properties (e.g., polarity and hygroscopicity), and dynamics of the evaporation process. Here, we describe a real-time and in situ study of simvastatin evaporative crystallization from droplets of three solvents that differ in volatility, polarity, and protic character (acetone, ethanol, and ethyl acetate). The droplet monitorization relied on synchrotron X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, imaging, and thermographic analysis. A pronounced solvent-dependent behavior was observed. In ethanol, a simvastatin amorphous gel-like material was produced, which showed no tendency for crystallization over time; in ethyl acetate, a glassy material was formed, which crystallized on storage over a two-week period to yield simvastatin form I; and in acetone, form I crystallized upon solvent evaporation without any evident presence of a stable amorphous intermediate. The XRD and Raman results further suggested that the persistent amorphous phase obtained from ethanol and the amorphous precrystallization intermediate formed in ethyl acetate were similar. Thermographic analysis indicated that the evaporation process was accompanied by a considerable temperature decrease of the droplet surface, whose magnitude and rate correlated with the solvent volatility (acetone > ethyl acetate > ethanol). The combined thermographic and XRD results also suggested that, as the cooling effect increased, so did the amount of residual water (most likely captured from the atmosphere) remaining in the droplet after the organic solvent was lost. Finally, the interpretation of the water fingerprint in the XRD time profiles was aided by molecular dynamics simulations, which also provided insights into the possible role of H2O as an antisolvent that facilitates simvastatin crystallization. KW - Simvastatin KW - In-situ KW - API KW - Crystallization PY - 2021 DO - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.cgd.1c00509 SN - 1528-7483 VL - 21 IS - 8 SP - 4665 EP - 4673 PB - ACS Publications AN - OPUS4-53663 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Simões, R. G. A1 - Melo, P. L. T. A1 - Bernardes, C. E. S. A1 - Heilmann, Maria A1 - Emmerling, Franziska A1 - Minas da Piedade, M. E. T1 - Linking Aggregation in Solution, Solvation, and Solubility of Simvastatin: An Experimental and MD Simulation Study JF - Crystal Growth & Design N2 - The solubility is generally thought to be higher if the solvent effectively solvates solute molecules that are well-separated from each other. The present work suggests, however, that the formation of large solute aggregates does not necessarily imply less effective solvation and lower solubility. Measurements of the solubility of simvastatin (one of the most commonly prescribed antihyperlipidemic drugs) in three solvents with different polarities and protic characters, led to the solubility order acetone > ethyl acetate > ethanol, in the full temperature range covered by the experiments (283–308 K). An analysis of the structures of the different solutions on the basis of molecular dynamics simulation results indicated that this trend seems to be determined by a balance between the solute tendency toward aggregation and the ability of the solvent to efficiently solvate it, by integrating the cluster structures, regardless of their size, and effectively establishing solvent–solute interactions. KW - Simvastatin KW - Solubility KW - API KW - Aggregation PY - 2021 DO - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.cgd.0c01325 VL - 21 IS - 1 SP - 544 EP - 551 AN - OPUS4-52185 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -