Donepezil has polymorphism. Different crystalline forms
can exhibit
different physicochemical properties and biological activities. Exploration
of intermolecular interactions is essential to reveal the formation
mechanism and differences in properties of polymorphs. This study
explores the weak non-covalent intermolecular interactions of donepezil
polymorphs through fully ab initio quantum mechanical methods, semi-empirical
methods, and Hirshfeld surface analysis. The results show that the
Hirshfeld surface analysis method can clearly and intuitively reveal
the intermolecular interactions. Theoretical calculations using the
atom–atom Coulomb–London–Pauli (AA-CLP) method
were also performed to understand the interaction energies toward
the total lattice energy. The value of the lattice energy was in accordance
with the melting points of the donepezil polymorphs and brought to
light the nature of thermal stability. In the specific energy distribution,
the contribution of the dispersion force is the most prominent. Further
interaction energy analysis found that within a distance of 3.8 Å
from the center of the donepezil molecule, different crystalline forms
of donepezil molecules have different interaction energies with surrounding
molecules. The different interaction energies between polymorphs may
lead to polymorphs with different physical–chemical properties.