Electron Diffraction (Micro-ED): A dedicated device and its applications in the pharmaceutical industry

TL;DR

Electron diffraction (micro-ED) is becoming a key tool in pharmaceutical research for determining molecular structures when traditional methods fail.

Contribution

This paper highlights the practical applications and impact of micro-ED in the pharmaceutical industry through case studies and new use cases.

Findings

Micro-ED provides structural information previously unattainable by other methods in pharmaceutical contexts.

The technique is used for characterizing meta-stable polymorphic forms and identifying crystallinity in amorphous dispersions.

Micro-ED supports litigation purposes and phase identification in drug development.

Abstract

Since the Science nomination for “Breakthrough of the year 2018” [1], electron diffraction (3D ED, known also as micro-ED) for structural elucidation of organic compounds has been gaining a lot of momentum. 3D ED has been rapidly evolving as a complementary technique for SCXRD experiments [2]. Especially for those cases where single crystals of suitable size for XRD experiments are not obtained. Dedicated electron diffractometers [3] make the technique more accessible, resulting in many recent publications where these commercial electron diffractometers have been used [4].

3D ED / Micro-ED’s ease of use and its potential for various applications is presented in multiple studies, especially in the pharmaceutical industry where it is having a high impact [5,6]. We would highlight some case studies where electron diffraction has helped the pharmaceutical industry obtain structural information not available before by other means [4b, 6]. Furthermore, we’ll delve and showcase other applications like: Characterization of meta-stable polymorphic forms, identifying crystallinity in amorphous solid dispersions, finding new polymorphic forms, identifying polymorphic forms for litigation purposes, impurities and phase identification using crystal mapping, and more.