On Line Monitoring of Batch Pharmaceutical Crystallization Using Atr Ftir Spectroscopy

Chemists and engineers involved in the production of solid drugs have to deal with difficult new challenges, including the on-line mastery of the crystal habits and size distribution or the control of polymorphic transitions. A major limitation to improving the control of industrial crystallizers lies in the lack of versatile and reliable on-line sensors. Supersaturation measurements can be performed using in situ Mid-Infrared spectroscopy. New potential applications of the technique are described : the acquisition of key data characterising the solute/solvent system in question, the design of improved monitoring and/or operating strategies, and the monitoring of polymorphic transitions during crystallization operations. Copyright © 2002 IFAC