On the origin of surface imposed anisotropic growth of salicylic and acetylsalicylic acids crystals during droplet evaporation

TL;DR

This study investigates how different surfaces influence the anisotropic growth of salicylic and acetylsalicylic acid crystals during droplet evaporation, revealing surface chemistry's role in crystal orientation and morphology.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the surface-dependent crystallization mechanisms of SA and ASA, combining experimental crystallography with quantum-chemical analysis.

Findings

Paraffin promotes bulk-like crystal morphology.

Polar surfaces induce significant crystal orientation effects.

Surface intermolecular interaction energies correlate with crystal face orientation.

Abstract

In this paper droplet evaporative crystallization of salicylic acid (SA) and acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) crystals on different surfaces, such as glass, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), and paraffin was studied. The obtained crystals were analyzed using powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) technique. In order to better understand the effect of the surface on evaporative crystallization, crystals deposited on glass were scraped off. Moreover, evaporative crystallization of a large volume of solution was performed. As we found, paraffin which is non-polar surface promotes formation of crystals morphologically similar to those obtained via bulk evaporative crystallization. On the other hand, when crystallization is carried out on the polar surfaces (glass and PVA), there is a significant orientation effect. This phenomenon is manifested by the reduction of the number of peaks in PXRD spectrum recorded for deposited on the surface crystals. Noteworthy, reduction of PXRD signals is not observed for powder samples obtained after scraping crystals off the glass. In order to explain the mechanism of carboxylic crystals growth on the polar surfaces, quantum-chemical computations were performed. It has been found that crystal faces of the strongest orientation effect can be characterized by the highest surface densities of intermolecular interactions energy (IIE). In case of SA and ASA crystals formed on the polar surfaces the most dominant faces are characterized by the highest adhesive and cohesive properties. This suggests that the selection rules of the orientation effect comes directly from surface IIE densities.