Thermal Analysis as a Tool in Materials Science

Abstract

As an emerging discipline, pharmaceutical materials science correlates physical properties of active compounds and pharmaceutical ingredients with the performance of the finished dosage product. Small molecules of pharmaceutical interest can exist in many different forms called morphs, which have different degrees of order at the atomic level. Detection, characterisation and quantification of amorphous, polymorphs and pseudo-polymorhs have been recent subjects of research globally. The thermal analysis (TA) has been extensively used to provide insight into structural changes on molecular level. Therefore, TA is the most important analytical tool for studying physico-chemical properties of materials. Amongst the most widely used thermal analytical techniques are thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and hot stage microscopy (HSM). Recently, differential mechanical analysis (DMA) and thermally stimulated current (TSC) spectroscopy draw attention to a new ways of monitoring motions and changes in the structure of materials. Basic principles and applications of the most widely used TA techniques are main scope of the presentation. In addition, novel approaches and hyphenated techniques will be introduced