Deformation in crystalline pharmaceutical processing - College of Engineering - Purdue University

Project Description

Successful oral delivery of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) remains challenging because many APIs exhibit poor aqueous solubility and inadequate mechanical properties for tablet manufacturing. Particle size reduction by milling is routinely employed during tablet development to enhance dissolution and achieve content uniformity; however, milling alone cannot address the intrinsic compaction behavior of an API. The compaction performance of pharmaceutical crystals is fundamentally governed by their mechanical properties, including hardness, elastic modulus, and fracture behavior. These properties can potentially be tailored through crystal structure modification, such as pharmaceutical cocrystallization, which alters intermolecular interactions and crystal packing and, consequently, mechanical behavior. Nanoindentation provides a powerful approach for quantitatively characterizing the mechanical properties of individual pharmaceutical crystals at the microscale, enabling direct investigation of structure–mechanical property relationships. The goal of this project is to establish a materials-science-based approach for guiding API crystal engineering using nanoindentation-derived mechanical properties. By linking crystal structure, mechanical behavior, and compaction performance, the proposed approach will enable rational selection and optimization of API crystal forms and cocrystals for tablet development. Ultimately, this strategy is expected to reduce material requirements and accelerate the development of robust, effective oral solid dosage forms.

Start Date

Spring 2027

Postdoc Qualifications

Co-advisors

Bibliography