Bruker Optics and METTLER TOLEDO launch integrated solution for simultaneous Thermal and Spectral analysis - SDSC - Spectral Differential Scanning Calorimetry

Bruker Optics and METTLER TOLEDO have officially launched the SDSC, a unique solution for a new hyphenated technique. The crowning achievement of an exclusive collaboration aimed at integrating two separate products to provide a sophisticated solution, the SDSC enables simultaneous thermal and spectral measurements on the same sample.

The two companies held an informative, well-attended seminar at the Bruker Optics facilities in Coventry, which witnessed the official launch and provided a detailed introduction of the new technique to invited specialists and scientists from industry and academia. Hyphenated techniques are widely acknowledged for their ability to provide invaluable insights into a range of material behaviour and this latest, powerful technique exclusively integrates FTNIR/Raman and Differential Scanning Calorimetry, delivering enhanced information across a wide range of applications.

Thermal and Spectral analysis is conducted routinely to characterise a large range of materials and compounds. However, tests are usually conducted independently on separate samples where comparison of essentially the same material can provide conflicting results. Now, thanks to the new collaboration and the complete integration of spectral and thermal measurement, this has become a thing of the past.

SDSC’s simultaneous data acquisition significantly reduces sample preparation and data collection time, yet provides unsurpassed, complementary sample information. Of considerable benefit to a wide variety of applications, energetic thermal events can now be correlated directly with any chemical change in the sample; polymorphs, which are currently difficult to compare using discreet methods, can be differentiated dynamically; Isothermal polymorphic transitions can be easily distinguished; and the presence of water in different states (free or bound) in different crystalline forms can also be easily identified.

The seminar covered numerous applications that will clearly benefit from SDSC, including a Carbamazepine (CBZ) Polymorph Study from X-AT (Exeter Advanced Technologies). Carbamazepine (CBZ) is an important anticonvulsant and mood-stabilizing drug used primarily in the treatment of epilepsy and bipolar disorder. They exist in two major polymorphic forms that are enantiotropically related (i.e. form III is stable at low temperature, form I stable at high), and delivering the correct form is crucial to the drug‘s effectiveness and safety.

The transformation of form III to form I can be monitored easily by dynamic DSC, however, alone, under isothermal conditions, this becomes impossible. Yet this is crucial because isothermal testing provides much more information about the stability and initial state of the CBZ sample. By using SDSC – simultaneous Isothermal DSC and FT-NIR – critical information regarding the transition can be clearly seen in a shift in the FT-NIR spectrum.

Colin Barrow, Sales Manager for Bruker Optics Ltd, led the praise for the collaboration. “We are pleased with the success of our exclusive collaboration with METTLER TOLEDO, and look forward to jointly promoting our unique, sophisticated solution that will deliver previously unavailable yet essential information, to those researching new and emerging applications in the pharmaceutical industry.”