Progress in antisolvent crystallization in pharmaceutical field

Crystallization, a traditional method for separation, is widely used in pharmaceutical industry, chemical industry, materials, and other fields. With the deep study on crystallization technology and the strict requirement for the quality of product, crystallization is no longer only used for the separation and purification, but also for the preparations of the crystals with specific structure to fabricate specified functional products. As an important part of crystallization, anti-solvent crystallization has attracted much attention because of its simple operation and relatively low energy consumption and suitability for heat sensitive substances. In this paper, starting from the differences between anti-solvent crystallization and other kinds of solution crystallization, the thermodynamics and kinetics were introduced. The thermodynamics was focusing on the determination method of solubility and suitable operating conditions through phase diagram. The kinetics, described the way to establish batch or continuous crystallization kinetics model, and the process of anti-solvent crystallization, including the mixing of anti-solvent and solution, control and optimization of crystallization process, as well as the supercritical fluid technology and spherical crystallization technology that is the methods related to anti-solvent crystallization. Finally, the future development is prospected. © 2019, Chemical Industry Press. All right reserved.