Imaging of crystalline and amorphous surface regions using time-of-flight secondary-ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS): application to pharmaceutical materials

The structure of a material, in particular the extremes of crystalline and amorphous forms, significantly impacts material performance in numerous sectors such as semiconductors, energy storage, and pharmaceutical products, which are investigated in this paper. To characterize the spatial distributi...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Iuras, Andrea, Scurr, David J., Boissier, Catherine, Nicholas, Mark L., Roberts, Clive J., Alexander, Morgan R.
Format: Article
Published: American Chemical Society 2016
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32837/
_version_ 1848794500576575488
author Iuras, Andrea
Scurr, David J.
Boissier, Catherine
Nicholas, Mark L.
Roberts, Clive J.
Alexander, Morgan R.
author_facet Iuras, Andrea
Scurr, David J.
Boissier, Catherine
Nicholas, Mark L.
Roberts, Clive J.
Alexander, Morgan R.
author_sort Iuras, Andrea
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description The structure of a material, in particular the extremes of crystalline and amorphous forms, significantly impacts material performance in numerous sectors such as semiconductors, energy storage, and pharmaceutical products, which are investigated in this paper. To characterize the spatial distribution for crystalline−amorphous forms at the uppermost molecular surface layer, we performed time-of-flight secondary-ion mass spectroscopy (ToF-SIMS) measurements for quench-cooled amorphous and recrystallized samples of the drugs indomethacin, felodipine, and acetaminophen. Polarized light microscopy was used to localize crystallinity induced in the samples under controlled conditions. Principal component analysis was used to identify the subtle changes in the ToF-SIMS spectra indicative of the amorphous and crystalline forms for each drug. The indicators of amorphous and crystalline surfaces were common in type across the three drugs, and could be explained in general terms of crystal packing and intermolecular bonding, leading to intramolecular chain scission in the formation of secondary ions. Less intramolecular scission occurred in the amorphous form, resulting in a greater intensity of molecular and dimer secondary ions. To test the generality of amorphous−crystalline differentiation using ToF-SIMS, a different recrystallization method was investigated where acetaminophen single crystals were recrystallized from supersaturated solutions. The findings indicated that the ability to assign the crystalline/amorphous state of the sample using ToF-SIMS was insensitive to the recrystallization method. This demonstrates ToF-SIMS capabilities of detecting and mapping ordered crystalline and disordered amorphous molecular materials forms at micron spatial resolution in the uppermost surface of a material.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T19:17:11Z
format Article
id nottingham-32837
institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T19:17:11Z
publishDate 2016
publisher American Chemical Society
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling nottingham-328372020-05-04T17:35:27Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32837/ Imaging of crystalline and amorphous surface regions using time-of-flight secondary-ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS): application to pharmaceutical materials Iuras, Andrea Scurr, David J. Boissier, Catherine Nicholas, Mark L. Roberts, Clive J. Alexander, Morgan R. The structure of a material, in particular the extremes of crystalline and amorphous forms, significantly impacts material performance in numerous sectors such as semiconductors, energy storage, and pharmaceutical products, which are investigated in this paper. To characterize the spatial distribution for crystalline−amorphous forms at the uppermost molecular surface layer, we performed time-of-flight secondary-ion mass spectroscopy (ToF-SIMS) measurements for quench-cooled amorphous and recrystallized samples of the drugs indomethacin, felodipine, and acetaminophen. Polarized light microscopy was used to localize crystallinity induced in the samples under controlled conditions. Principal component analysis was used to identify the subtle changes in the ToF-SIMS spectra indicative of the amorphous and crystalline forms for each drug. The indicators of amorphous and crystalline surfaces were common in type across the three drugs, and could be explained in general terms of crystal packing and intermolecular bonding, leading to intramolecular chain scission in the formation of secondary ions. Less intramolecular scission occurred in the amorphous form, resulting in a greater intensity of molecular and dimer secondary ions. To test the generality of amorphous−crystalline differentiation using ToF-SIMS, a different recrystallization method was investigated where acetaminophen single crystals were recrystallized from supersaturated solutions. The findings indicated that the ability to assign the crystalline/amorphous state of the sample using ToF-SIMS was insensitive to the recrystallization method. This demonstrates ToF-SIMS capabilities of detecting and mapping ordered crystalline and disordered amorphous molecular materials forms at micron spatial resolution in the uppermost surface of a material. American Chemical Society 2016-02-26 Article PeerReviewed Iuras, Andrea, Scurr, David J., Boissier, Catherine, Nicholas, Mark L., Roberts, Clive J. and Alexander, Morgan R. (2016) Imaging of crystalline and amorphous surface regions using time-of-flight secondary-ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS): application to pharmaceutical materials. Analytical Chemistry, 88 . pp. 3481-3487. ISSN 1520-6882 http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.analchem.5b02621 doi:10.1021/acs.analchem.5b02621 doi:10.1021/acs.analchem.5b02621
spellingShingle Iuras, Andrea
Scurr, David J.
Boissier, Catherine
Nicholas, Mark L.
Roberts, Clive J.
Alexander, Morgan R.
Imaging of crystalline and amorphous surface regions using time-of-flight secondary-ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS): application to pharmaceutical materials
title Imaging of crystalline and amorphous surface regions using time-of-flight secondary-ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS): application to pharmaceutical materials
title_full Imaging of crystalline and amorphous surface regions using time-of-flight secondary-ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS): application to pharmaceutical materials
title_fullStr Imaging of crystalline and amorphous surface regions using time-of-flight secondary-ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS): application to pharmaceutical materials
title_full_unstemmed Imaging of crystalline and amorphous surface regions using time-of-flight secondary-ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS): application to pharmaceutical materials
title_short Imaging of crystalline and amorphous surface regions using time-of-flight secondary-ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS): application to pharmaceutical materials
title_sort imaging of crystalline and amorphous surface regions using time-of-flight secondary-ion mass spectrometry (tof-sims): application to pharmaceutical materials
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32837/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32837/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32837/