Pharmaceutical Crystallography: A Guide to Structure and Analysis

The pharmaceutical industry has become acutely aware of the importance of the solid state, but pharmaceutical scientists often lack specific training in topics related to solid-state structure and crystallography. This book provides needed support in this topical area.

Taking an intuitive and informal approach to solid-state structure and crystallographic concepts, this book is written for anyone who needs a clear understanding of modern crystallography, with specific reference to small-molecule pharmaceutical solids. The author describes molecular crystals and crystal structures, symmetry, space groups, single-crystal and powder X-ray diffraction techniques and the analysis and interpretation of crystallographic data. Useful technical details are presented where necessary and case studies from the pharmaceutical literature put theory into a practical context.

Written by an internationally leading figure and with its focus on molecular crystals, this book is equally applicable to chemists with a need to understand and apply X-ray crystal-structure determination.