2019, Khudozhitkov, Alexander E., Neumann, Jan, Niemann, Thomas, Zaitsau, Dzmitry, Stange, Peter, Paschek, Dietmar, Stepanov, Alexander G., Kolokolov, Daniil I., Ludwig, Ralf

We present deuteron quadrupole coupling constants (DQCC) for hydroxyl-functionalized ionic liquids (ILs) in the crystalline or glassy states characterizing two types of hydrogen bonding: The regular Coulomb-enhanced hydrogen bonds between cation and anion (c–a), and the unusual hydrogen bonds between cation and cation (c–c), which are present despite repulsive Coulomb forces. We measure these sensitive probes of hydrogen bonding by means of solid-state NMR spectroscopy. The DQCCs of (c–a) ion pairs and (c–c) H-bonds are compared to those of salt bridges in supramolecular complexes and those present in molecular liquids. At low temperatures, the (c–c) species successfully compete with the (c–a) ion pairs and dominate the cluster populations. Equilibrium constants obtained from molecular-dynamics (MD) simulations show van't Hoff behavior with small transition enthalpies between the differently H-bonded species. We show that cationic-cluster formation prevents these ILs from crystallizing. With cooling, the (c–c) hydrogen bonds persist, resulting in supercooling and glass formation. © 2019 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.

2019, Frosch, Timea, Wyrwich, Elisabeth, Yan, Di, Domes, Christian, Domes, Robert, Popp, Jürgen, Frosch, Torsten

The fight against counterfeit pharmaceuticals is a global issue of utmost importance, as failed medication results in millions of deaths every year. Particularly affected are antimalarial tablets. A very important issue is the identification of substandard tablets that do not contain the nominal amounts of the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API), and the differentiation between genuine products and products without any active ingredient or with a false active ingredient. This work presents a novel approach based on fiber-array based Raman hyperspectral imaging to qualify and quantify the antimalarial APIs lumefantrine and artemether directly and non-invasively in a tablet in a time-efficient way. The investigations were carried out with the antimalarial tablet Riamet® and self-made model tablets, which were used as examples of counterfeits and substandard. Partial least-squares regression modeling and density functional theory calculations were carried out for quantification of lumefantrine and artemether and for spectral band assignment. The most prominent differentiating vibrational signatures of the APIs were presented.