Study of temperature-dependent terahertz spectra of isonicotinamide in the form I using the quasi-harmonic approximation

Harmonic and anharmonic studies on THz spectra of two vanillin polymorphs

Polymorphism commonly exists in organic molecular crystals. The fingerprint features in low-frequency vibrational range are important information reflecting different intermolecular interactions of polymorphs. Interpreting these features is very helpful to understand vibrational property of polymorphs and reveal the thermodynamic stability. In this work, the low-frequency vibrations of form I and II of vanillin are investigated using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy. Static DFT calculation and ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) are employed to interpret their low-frequency vibrations of both forms in harmonic and anharmonic ways, respectively. Their low-frequency vibration characteristics in harmonic calculations are discussed, and anharmonic mode couplings between OH bond stretch and the stretching and bending motion of hydrogen bonds are uncovered. Moreover, the thermodynamic energies including electronic potential energy and vibrational/kinetic energy arising from nuclear motions are calculated. The result reveals that the stability order of the two forms is mainly dependent on their electric potential energy difference.

Dehydration kinetics and mechanism of the stable isonicotinamide hydrate revealed by terahertz spectroscopy and DFT calculation

The dehydration behavior of pharmaceutical hydrates has a great influence on its physiochemical properties such as stability, dissolution rate and bioavailability. However, how the intermolecular interactions vary during dehydration process remains elusive. In this work, we employed terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) to probe the low-frequency vibrations and the dehydration process of isonicotinamide hydrate I (INA-H I). Theoretical solid-state DFT calculation was conducted to reveal its mechanism. Vibrational modes which are responsible for the THz absorption peaks were decomposed for better understanding the characters of these low-frequency modes. The result suggests translational motion is the dominant component for water molecules in THz region. Evolution of the THz spectrum of INA-H I during dehydration provides direct evidence of the variations of crystal structure. Based on the THz measurements, a two-step kinetics mode including first-rate reaction and three-dimensional nuclei growth is proposed. And we nure that the low-frequency vibrations of water molecules are the origin of dehydration process of hydrate.