Determination of nucleation kinetics of lovastatin in acetone solution

The metastable zone widths of lovastatin in acetone solution were determined at different temperatures, cooling rates and initial concentrations by polythermal method. It decreases with the increase of temperature and initial concentration, increases with the increase of cooling rate. The induction periods of lovastatin in acetone solution were also investigated as a function of supersaturation ratios. The crystal-liquid interfacial tension, thus the fundermental nucleation parameters including Gibbs free energy change for the formation of critical nucleus, radius of critical nucleus and number of molecules in the critical nucleus have been gotten based on the classical homogeneous nucleation theory. (C) 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim