# The Vortex-Slurry Implementation: A Cheap, Easy, and Ultrafast Mechanochemical Tool to Synthesize/Screen Pharmaceutical Salts and Cocrystals

## TL;DR

A new and simple method called vortex-slurry is introduced for making pharmaceutical salts and cocrystals quickly and at a low cost.

## Contribution

The vortex-slurry method introduces a novel experimental setup that enables new 3D thermodynamic states for supramolecular synthesis.

## Key findings

- The method successfully resynthesized known salts and cocrystals.
- A new solid form of the antiviral drug Stavudine was created.
- Theoretical studies showed increased system activation energy due to helical ball bearing movements.

## Abstract

The vortex-slurry implementation is a combination of
the best insights
taken from multiple solid-state methods using accessible tools to
improve the physical scenario, mainly designed for the supramolecular
synthesis of new multicomponent pharmaceutical solid forms by coupling
mechanochemistry and slurry techniques within a vortex mixer. The
proposal of the vortex-slurry implementation is to provide a totally
different experimental ambient capable of reaching new 3D thermodynamic
states, not allowed in the current commercial mechanochemistry methods
(1D mixer mill and 2D planetary mill). The obtained compounds could
be easily scaled from milligrams to grams, thus opening the door for
the possibility of an industrial scaling approach. The improvements
achieved by this new implementation were validated by resynthesizing
already reported salts and cocrystals and by presenting a new solid
form for the antiviral drug Stavudine (DT4), which is an orally administered
second-line drug in HIV treatment. Theoretical studies revealed that
this implementation enhances the activation energy of the system due
to the ball bearings’ helical movements. It is expected that
this implementation can spread to the scientific community, allowing
manufacturability of new drug candidates and generating improvements
in the quality of life of patients.