Thermal behaviour of two anti-inflammatory drugs (celecoxib and rofecoxib) and slow relaxation dynamics in their amorphous solid state. Comparison between the dynamic fragility obtained by dielectric spectroscopy and by thermostimulated currents

This study of the thermal behaviour of two glass formers showed that rofecoxib has a good ability to vitrify while celecoxib displays a moderate glass forming ability. On the other hand, celecoxib forms an instable glass while rofecoxib displays moderate glass stability. The α-relaxation of the two amorphous drugs was studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermally stimulated depolarization currents (TSDC). The values of the dynamic fragility obtained by the two techniques are in good mutual agreement and suggest that both drugs are moderately fragile glass formers. These values are however considerably lower than those obtained by dielectric relaxation spectroscopy (DRS) and published in the literature. In the present work we will compare the values of the dynamic fragility obtained by TSDC and DRS for a set of ~30 glass-forming liquids, in order to evaluate their relative suitability for the determination of the m-index. The observed differences are discussed and interpreted. Finally, secondary mobility modes were detected by TSDC in both celecoxib and rofecoxib. The kinetic parameters are identical in both cases and similar to those found by DRS for the slow-b relaxation of celecoxib. These secondary relaxations, that are precursors of the main relaxation on its lower temperature side, are believed to be Johari-Goldstein relaxations.