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Industrial Group of the BCA
February 2003 NewsletterContentsNEW*����� Download
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Thanks to Forthcoming EventsBCA SPRING MEETING, YORK. 15th - 17th April 2003 BCA INDUSTRIAL GROUP AUTUMN FORUM NON BCA MEETINGS: EditorialWelcome to this latest issue of the IG newsletter. After a relatively quiet 2002, there are some exciting things happening in 2003. Firstly, some changes to the format of the Spring Meeting in York means that delegates can now register on a daily basis. This is good news for many industrial group members whose work commitments make it difficult to take a whole week off. There are lots of details in this newsletter; so please do have a look through the program a nd come along. This is a good opportunity to meet fellow diffractionists and also look at some of the latest developments in hardware/software in the commercial exhibition. Finally, please consider putting together something for a poster - you might win a prize! The meeting offers excellent training opportunities (less than £100 per day full board!) so recommend the meeting to your colleagues. Also in this newsletter are details of the Autumn Forum. This promises to be a fantast ic event with something for everyone and a chance to enjoy the capital for a couple of days; maybe longer. Thanks to those who have kindly submitted articles for this newsletter. I am always looking for contributions. Philip Holdway 
Web SiteWhat improvements or additions would you like to see to the Industrial Group Web pages? What about a link on the index page to a Web site of the
month? Try: Send ideas to: [email protected] Did you know?
Articles Wanted:Why not put pen to paper and write a short article for our next Newsletter. There are lots of examples to give you some ideas in our Hints & Tips section on the WEB. We are also looking to expand the range of Industrial Applications of XRD on our WEB Site. All we need are a few well chosen pictures and a few words. How about something on CEMENTS, MINERALS, MUSEUMS, PHOTOGRAPHY, DETERGENTS, PIGMENTS, POLYMERS
Quantitative Analysis Round RobinOnline Registration for your Samples REGISTER NOW! The BCA Industrial Group is launching a quantitative analysis Round Robin. Two samples are available:
The exercise will be discussed on the Thursday afternoon of the Spring meeting. The choice of technique will be up to the individual participant. Full details are not available as we go to press with this Newsletter more details will be available on the IG web pages by the time you receive your copy. AVAILABLE NOW! Please volunteer to take part to test the accuracy of your quantitative analysis technique. A prize of a bottle of champagne will be awarded to the participant whose result is closest to the theoretical composition for each sample. In the event of a tie the judges will consume the prize! These exercises can provide useful insight into the best choice of technique for particular samples. Please take part or at least come to the session at York and listen to the discussion.
The 2nd Pharmaceutical Powder X-ray Diffraction SymposiumConcordville, Pennsylvania, USA 9-12th December 2002 The symposium, which focuses on the use of XRPD for the analysis of pharmaceutical materials, comes three years after PPXRD-1 and the content reflected the dramatic rise in status of XRPD within pharmaceutical industry dur ing that time. Structure determination for organics was the 'cutting edge' of PPXRD-1; at PPXRD-2, that baton was passed to high-throughput crystallisation and the screening and identification of polymorphic forms and salts. The symposium opened with a day dedicated to the acquisition and analysis of XRPD data. Various representatives of academia, pharmaceutical industry, equipment manufacturers, analytical labs and database vendors covered the full spectrum of methods now available for exam ining pharmaceuticals as raw materials and as finished products. Whilst the emphasis was very much on 'in-house' laboratory XRPD (both 'standard' and 'high-throughput'), synchrotron radiation was also represented. The talks ended with a session on powder indexing and an evening poster session. It was clear by the end of the day that a great many ingenious hardware and software solutions have been developed to specifically target the problems currently occupying pre-formulation and formulation labora tories in industry. The second day opened with a session on polymorph characterisation. Again, the speakers represented all interested parties and presented results from challenging problems, including determining the dynamics of dehydration in indapamide hemihydrate, 'clustering' of low-quality XRPD patterns for phase identification and characterisation of four polymorphs offananserine. High-throughput crystallisation techniques that allowed up to ~300 crystallisations per day for a single l ead compound were also clearly explained. The afternoon session focused-down on structure determination from powder data, and a wide range of examples including zopiclone, anhydrous caffeine (Z'=5) and a disordered form of ranitidine were presented, underlining the fact that structure solution is no longer strictly the preserve of the dedicated crystallographer. The final day opened with a session on regulatory and patent issues. As is normal for such sessions, a number of well-known litigat ion cases including cefadroxil and ranitidine were discussed in order to highlight the differences between the scientific and legal arguments involved. Unsurprisingly, it was made quite clear that it was naïve to believe that 'scientific truth' was the be-all and end-all of any given litigation. The closing session, which changed tack to cover applications of small-angle X-ray scattering to pharmaceutical materials, jarred somewhat with the main thrust of the symposium, but nevertheless highlig hted some interesting pharmaceutical themes, which will no doubt be built upon in future meetings. The final day consisted of an instrument calibration and indexing workshop at the nearby ICDD Headquarters, which I was unfortunately not able to attend, but which benefited greatly from the contributions of expert tutors. At the end of the symposium, one left with the impression that XRPD has a bright future within pharmaceutical industry. This is a remarkable transformation for a techni que that was, until quite recently, viewed as useful merely for fingerprinting or for providing a set of d-spacings for a table in a patent. The emergent key phrase 'high-throughput' is destined to resonate loudly in years to come. All speakers placed an emphasis on obtaining the best-possible XRPD data in order to make subsequent analysis of the data easier. It was clear that without high-quality data collection and data analysis, high-throughput XRPD will simply result in a massive collection of p atterns that cannot be gainfully used. The only disappointing aspect of the meeting was the relatively poor attendance. Some of this can be put down to the timing of the meeting and the existence of a similar analytical meeting held in the summer and an ACS meeting on polymorphism being held early in the 2003. For those who stayed away, this was an opportunity missed to hear exactly how 'solution seekers' and 'solution providers' are working closely together to push an analytical technique f orward. The meeting was well organised and enhanced by an openness on the part of the speakers to discuss failures, as well as successes, and talks were (with only one exception) firmly rooted in science / technology and were refreshingly free of 'sales pitch' for hardware, software and services. Kenneth Shankland <
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PANalytical XRD User Group MeetingMillennium Point, Birmingham A dozen or so intrepid diffractionists made their way through rush-hour traffic to the Millennium Point, Birmingham for the first 'PANalytical' XRD User Group meeting since its name change from Philips Analytical in September. The morning session opened with Users being brought up-to date with the current status of the company (Robin Aird). The new X'Celerator detector was then discussed by Martijn Franson with an explanation of the 'Real Time Multiple Strip' technology that underpins its response. Paul O'Meara then went on to explain the new X'Pert Data Collector Software. There is now no need for the 'Organiser' software and X'Pert Highscore and Data Viewer now replace Graphics Identify. Uli Riedle explained the new XRDML file structure - more information about which can be found at www.XRDML.com. The session was concluded with John Benstead outlining what affects the lifetime of an X-ray tube. Essentially, it is due to filament material forming on the anode surface but it was interesting to find out what accelerates this - from temperature and water quality to tube power settings. The afternoon session gave Users an opportunity to have their say. Contributors were David Gleeson (Nanomagnetics Ltd), Jeff Howe (Alcan Primary Metal), Sasha Babkevich (Oxford University), Mike Morris (Cork University) and Colin Small (Rolls Royce). Several of the speakers and others present, commented on the new X'Celerator detector. Users agreed that the detector greatly reduces acquisition time and one User said something along the lines of 'observations to date would indicate that 'PANalytical' is correct in its assertion that the detector is 100x quicker than other detectors' - how's that for a scientific response? Now, let's be honest, the highlight of the day was the visit to the I-Max Cinema which PANalytical had kindly organised at the en d of the meeting. We were supplied with 3D glasses. The film we saw was Cyberworld - a 3D animated film involving the hunt for a computer virus in electronic circuitry - I think! Anyway, we saw a collection of weird and wonderful 3D creatures and the film was quite impressive. However, as scientists, we were equally interested in the technology and more than one of us tried to observe the effects by rotating our 3D glasses, looking through one eye-piece only and looking the wrong way through the glas ses! Overall, a very informative and entertaining day. Thankyou PANalytical. Mark Farnworth Newsletter Mailing list.To keep cost down and to ensure that the newsletter gets to the appropriate people it is essential that we know your correct address. Also if there is a more appropriate contact in your organisation or if you no longer require a copy please let us know by contact ing any of the committee officers. If you would like an e-mail notification of the WEB posting of future IG Newsletters then send an E-mail to [email protected] - with the title SUBSCRIBE WEB NEWS |
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