Crystallization of chemical species/polymorphs and microfluidic apparatus and screening methodology therefor
AssigneesRhodia Operations, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
InventorsMathieu Joanicot, Philippe Laval, Jacques Leng, Jean-Baptiste Salmon
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Abstract
The crystallization of chemical species/polymorphs comprises forming droplets of a solution of a substance with optionally different concentrations of said substance in an inert phase; producing and storing the droplets in at least one storage microchannel (1); forming crystals in all droplets; increasing the temperature in order to induce the dissolution of at least a portion of the crystals in at least some droplets; and analyzing the crystallization and dissolution process.
Claims29
A method of monitoring the crystallization of a substance in solution in a solvent, comprising the following steps:
- forming droplets (G) of said solution, optionally with different concentrations of said substance, in an inert phase (T);
- storing the droplets produced in at least one storage microchannel (1);
- forming crystals in all of the droplets;
- increasing the temperature to dissolve at least certain of the crystals in at least certain droplets;
- and
- observing and analyzing the crystallization and dissolution sequence.
A microfluidic device/apparatus for monitoring the crystallization of a substance in solution in a solvent, comprising:
- at least one storage microchannel (1) for storing droplets of said solution in an inert phase;
- a first inlet (2) for introducing said solution into said storage microchannel;
- a second inlet (3) for introducing said inert phase into said storage microchannel;
- and
- means (4) for closing said storage microchannel (1), said means being placed downstream of this storage channel.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.