Microfluidics Setup Rapidly Measures Solubility Directly from Powder

Abstract

This communication presents a new microfluidics device for solubility measurement based on the generation of saturated solutions starting from powder and compatible with all solvents and molecules. This device is simple and easily incorporated into any laboratory, even those not specialized in microfluidics. We described the method used to measure solubility, applied here to the pharmaceutical molecules paracetamol and gliclazide in different solvents. The device rapidly measures the solubility of a compound at a variety of temperatures ranging from 20 to 60°C using extremely small quantities (here, only 30mg) of material, with a concentration range from mg/mL to hundreds of mg/mL.

Microfluidics Platform for Polymorph Screening Directly from Powder

“…Sulfathiazole solubility was measured for isopropanol, acetonitrile and water at temperatures between 20 and 80 °C with the microfluidics set-up and experimental procedure presented previously 15 . This set-up is used to measure in 4 hours, directly from powder (as little as 30mg), a temperature solubility curve (5 to 7 points) in a solvent, with approximately 5% error.…”

Microfluidic approaches for accessing thermophysical properties of fluid systems

“…Microfluidic devices with in situ UV-vis spectrometry are also used in the medical field to measure the solubility of powder for example. Recently, Peybernès et al 49 presented a device made of PEEK (Polyether ether ketone) in order to generate saturated solutions. Their work enables to rapidly measure the solubility of a compound in different solvents with concentrations from mg/ml to hundreds of mg/ml.…”

Advances in the Use of Microfluidics to Study Crystallization Fundamentals

“…Droplets of the liquid containing the solute are generated by injecting it (dispersed flow) together with a non-miscible liquid (continuous flow) into junctions. Many experiments and simulations investigate the size (length L) and frequency of droplets through phase properties (viscosity (35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41)(42)(43) and interfacial energy (35,36,43)), channel geometry (the height and the width of the channels essentially in planar geometries with rectangular cross-sections (34,(40)(41)(42)44)) and operating parameters (flow rate ratio (35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41)(45)(46)(47)(48)). Few studies deal with cylindrical channels.…”

“…To reduce the quantity of material consumed, our answer is to generate saturated solutions directly from powder in the microfluidic tubing (Figure 5) (34). The solvent flows through a powder bed blocked by a filter.…”

“…In addition, mixing of liquids, detection of droplets and their concentration and storage are performed independently, so the platform is flexible (Figure 2). It is used to investigate crystallization of various molecules: proteins in aqueous and viscous solutions like lysozyme (21,22,(29)(30)(31)33), rasburicase (23) and human quinone reductase 2 (QR2) (30,32), organic molecules like caffeine in isonicotinamide (21), glyclazide in isopropanol and paracetamol in water, in acetonitrile and in isopropanol (34).…”