Preparative Methods for Polymorphs and Solvatomorphs

Crystallization remains the primary means of controlling the polymorphic or solva-tomorphic state of a compound, and various groups have examined the influences of processing parameters on the identity and quality of the isolated form. Seeding was used to reduce the size of the metastable zone of eflucimibe, and thereby control the identity of the desired polymorphic identity of the product through a reduction in concomitant crystallization [16], Process improvements have been developed that were found to improve the filterability and enhance the bulk density of ranitidine Form-1 [17], while the variation of process parameters used in an oscillatory baffled crystallizer enabled better selection to be made between the metastable a- and /i-forms of (z.)-glutamic acid [18]. 

Crystallization conditions can often be manipulated to favor the nucleation of alternate crystal forms. A metastable polymorph of metformin hydrochloride has been isolated using capillary crystallization techniques, and subsequently studied using thermal microscopy [24]. Calculations based on classical nucleation theory indicated that a metastable form could be obtained using high degrees of 

A piperidene-based intermediate was found to crystallize as either an anhydrate or a hydrate, but the impurity profile of the crystallized solids differed substantially [26], Considerations of molecular packing led to the deduction that there was more void volume in the anhydrate crystal structure than in that of the hydrate form, thereby facilitating more clathration in the anhydrate than in the hydrate phase. This phenomenon was led to a decision to crystallize the hydrate form, since lower levels of the undesired impurity could be occluded and greater compound purity could be achieved in the crystallization step. 

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