Sodium ibuprofen dihydrate and anhydrous Study of the dehydration and hydration mechanisms

(R,S)-(+/-)-ibuprofen sodium salt (racemate) dihydrate (SID) was dehydrated and the physicochemical properties of SID and the anhydrous forms (SIA) were compared by different analytical techniques (scanning electron microscopy, helium pychnometry, differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray powder diffractometry). The dehydration of SID, followed by thermogravimetry in isothermal conditions, allowed to calculate the activation energy of the dehydration process and to predict the mechanism of dehydration. Dehydration occurred in one step and the activation energy was rather low, indicating the ease of water removal from the crystal. The mechanism of dehydration followed a three dimensional diffusion (Jander equation). Similarly to the dehydration, the hydration process was followed under isothermal conditions by exposing the anhydrous powder at 64% RH at different temperatures. The mechanism of hydration was governed by a two dimensional diffusion and the energy associated to the process was very low, indicating the ease of crystal hydration. The driving force for the hydration is higher than that for the dehydration. From a thermodynamic point of view this fact may explain why the hydrated form is more stable than the anhydrous one. Solubilities, determined at different temperatures in water and in phosphate buffer (pH 6.8), showed that SID is more soluble in water than SIA for temperatures higher than approximately 283 K. On the contrary, in phosphate buffer SIA is always more soluble than SID in the temperature range considered for the experiments. Drug release reflects the solubility in water and phosphate buffer previously reported