No / Two force fields, the GROMOS53A5/53A6 (united atom) and the AMBER95 (all atom) parameter sets, coupled with partial atomic charges derived from quantum mechanical calculations were evaluated for their ability to reproduce the known crystalline forms of the polyols mannitol and sorbitol. The force fields were evaluated using molecular dynamics simulations at 10 K (which is akin to potential energy minimization) with the simulation cell lengths and angles free to evolve. Both force fields performed relatively poorly, not being able to simultaneously reproduce all of the crystal structures within a 5% deviation level. The parameter sets were then systematically optimized using sensitivity analysis, and a revised AMBER95 set was found to reproduce the crystal structures with less than 5% deviation from experiment. The stability of the various crystalline forms for each of the parameter sets (original and revised) was then assessed in extended MD simulations at 298 K and 1 bar covering 1 ns simulation time. The AMBER95 parameter sets (original and revised) were found to be effective in reproducing the crystal structures in these more stringent tests. Remarkably, the performance of the original AMBER95 parameter set was found to be slightly better than that of the revised set in these simulations at 298 K. The results of this study suggest that, whenever feasible, one should include molecular simulations at elevated temperatures when optimizing parameters.

The main objective of this work is to investigate the ionic conductivity of the drugs under certain conditions and also to compare the ionic conductivities of drugs determined by single surface sensors and parallel plate sensors. The ionic conductivity of various materials at their pre-melt and melt states are studied in order to further study a recently discovered phenomenon. Polar solids like Lidocaine, Ketoconazole, Procainamide and Nifedipine were examined in this study. Experimental studies show an increase in ionic conductivity in both pre-melt (20 -30 °C below melting temperature) and melt transition regions. Results of ionic conductivity of both parallel plate and single surface sensor at different frequencies are compared. At 1000 Hz, all the samples show an increase in ionic conductivity with both parallel plate and single surface sensor, but at 0.1 Hz frequency, no increase in ionic conductivity is observed with parallel plate sensor except for Nifedipine.