Crystal Nucleation of Tolbutamide in Solution: Relationship to Solvent, Solute Conformation, and Solution Structure.

The influence of the solvent in nucleation of tolbutamide, a medium-sized, flexible and polymorphic organic molecule, has been explored by measuring nucleation induction times, estimating solvent-solute interaction enthalpies using molecular modelling and calorimetric data, probing interactions and clustering with spectroscopy, and modelling solvent-dependence of molecular conformation in solution. The nucleation driving force required to reach the same induction time is strongly solvent-dependent, increasing in the order: acetonitrile