Non-monotonic changes in the static and dynamic properties of a series of phenyl alcohols were assigned to the interplay between the dispersive forces and H-bonding interactions.

Additive manufacturing technologies are considered as a potential way to support individualized pharmacotherapy due to the possibility of the production of small batches of customized tablets characterized by complex structures. We designed five different shapes and analyzed the effect of the surface/mass ratio, the influence of excipients, and storage conditions on the disintegration time of tablets printed using the fused deposition modeling method. As model pharmaceutical active ingredients (APIs), we used paracetamol and domperidone, characterized by different thermal properties, classified into the various Biopharmaceutical Classification System groups. We found that the high surface/mass ratio of the designed tablet shapes together with the addition of mannitol and controlled humidity storage conditions turned out to be crucial for fast tablet’s disintegration. As a result, mean disintegration time was reduced from 5 min 46 s to 2 min 22 s, and from 11 min 43 s to 2 min 25 s for paracetamol- and domperidone-loaded tablets, respectively, fulfilling the European Pharmacopeia requirement for orodispersible tablets (ODTs). The tablet’s immediate release characteristics were confirmed during the dissolution study: over 80% of APIs were released from printlets within 15 min. Thus, this study proved the possibility of using fused deposition modeling for the preparation of ODTs.

Wide-angle X-ray scattering patterns were recorded for a series of aliphatic butanol isomers (n-, iso-, sec-, tert-butanol) and their phenyl derivatives (4-phenyl-1-butanol, 2-methyl-3-phenyl-1-propanol, 4-phenyl-2-butanol, and 2-methyl-1-phenyl-2-propanol, respectively) to determine their atomic-scale structure with particular emphasis on the formation of supramolecular clusters. In addition, molecular dynamics simulations were carried out and yielded good agreement with experimental data. The combination of experimental and theoretical results allowed clarification of the origin of the pre-peak appearing at low scattering angles for the aliphatic butanols and its absence for their phenyl counterparts. It was demonstrated that the location of the hydroxyl group in the molecule of alkyl butanol, its geometry, and rigidity determine the morphology of the supramolecular clusters, while the addition of the aromatic moiety causes more disordered organization of molecules. The phenyl group significantly decreases the number of hydrogen bonds and size of the supramolecular clusters formed via the O-H···O scheme. The lower association ability of phenyl alcohols via H-bonds is additionally attenuated by the appearance of competing π-π configurations evidenced by the structural models.

Herein, we examined the effect of finite size and wettability on the structural dynamics and the molecular arrangement of the propylene carbonate derivative, (S)-(−)-4-methoxymethyl-1,3-dioxolan-2-one (assigned as s-methoxy-PC), incorporated into alumina and silica porous templates of pore diameters d = 4 nm–10 nm using Raman and broadband dielectric spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, and x-ray diffraction. It was demonstrated that only subtle changes in the molecular organization and short-range order of confined s-methoxy-PC molecules were detected. Yet, a significant deviation of the structural dynamics and depression of the glass transition temperatures, T_g, was found for all confined samples with respect to the bulk material. Interestingly, these changes correlate with neither the finite size effects nor the interfacial energy but seem to vary with wettability, generally. Nevertheless, for s-methoxy-PC infiltrated into native (more hydrophilic) and modified (more hydrophobic) silica templates of the same nanochannel size (d = 4 nm), a change in the dynamics and T_g was negligible despite a significant variation in wettability. These results indicated that although wettability might be a suitable variable to predict alteration of the structural dynamics and depression of the glass transition temperature, other factors, i.e., surface roughness and the density packing, might also have a strong contribution to the observed confinement effects.