XRD Application to Pharmaceuticals

Traditional quantitative analysis of solid-form content in a solid sample is challenging. Most notably in the production of representative standard calibration samples covering the concentration range of interest. In addition to weighing, mixing, and homogeneity errors, the resulting boutique standards will likely be not representative of the unknown material being analyzed.

The ideal solution has always been a Standardless Quantitative approach that is representative and relevant to the materials being studied. Component analysis using equal area scaling can make this ideal quantitative analysis solution a reality. 

Almost all analytical labs supporting the Pharmaceutical industry will have both Thermal analysis tools and X-ray powder diffraction. So, what is the benefit of combining simultaneous DSC and XRD measurements into a single attachment. It turns out that having the simultaneous thermal and powder data on the same sample yields a wealth of information that is often not easily accessible using each analytical technique separately.

X-ray powder diffraction is regarded as the gold standard with respect to the characterization of crystalline solid forms in pharmaceutical materials. However, the traditional Bragg peak crystalline methods become less relevant with the general trends of the increasing complexity of active molecules and the prevalence of non-crystalline forms (amorphous, meso-phasic, nano-phases, etc.).