Discovery of polymorph using ball milling holds promise for drug discovery

Three different crystalline forms, or polymorphs, of a compound have been reversibly transformed from one to another via mechanical grinding for the first time. The team behind the work suggest the number of attainable polymorphs could be limitless in principle, demonstrating that ball mills could offer a greener, faster and cheaper way to make products that are important for the pharmaceutical and chemical industries.

Ball milling is a common process for mechanochemical syntheses and it is expected to make chemistry more sustainable. That’s because, unlike traditional solution-based methods, it requires no heat, tiny amounts of solvent, if any, and does not produce toxic waste.