Physico-chemical characterization of anhydrous D-mannitol

In this work the solid-state characterization of anhydrous D-mannitol has been performed: α and β modifications can be distinguished only by XRPD and FTIR as they show melting temperature and enthalpy that are the same within the standard deviation. The understanding of the thermal behaviour of the δ form (obtained by re-crystallization in acetone) has required XRPD experiments performed at variable temperature. This form during heating undergoes a solid phase transition to α modification. By cooling a melted sample, under a wide range of experimental conditions, a very fast crystallization occurs. Independently of the starting crystal form (β or δ form), the re-crystallization of D-mannitol from melt always leads to α form.