Electric field for increasing the solubility of glass - a much sought after pharmaceutical advantage

Abstract A glass is usually formed by supercooling a liquid under ambient conditions. It can also be formed by supercooling under the influence of a static electric field, E, and used, after removing E, in the electrically polarized state as glass-electret. On the basis of the relation between E and the free energy, we formally deduce that solubility, dissolution rate and vapor pressure of a glass-electret would be higher than the corresponding values of normally formed glass. Calculations performed by using generic values show that increase in solubility would be by about 5–19%, and is likely to be more for a pharmaceutical glass. Further, we propose that solubility advantage of a pharmaceutical may be more accurately determined by measuring the vapor pressure. Electrets formed from liquid crystal and orientationally-disordered crystal state of pharmaceuticals would show similar increase in solubility and vapor pressure. The conclusions are important because of the need to increase the bioavailability of orally-, or intravenously-administered poorly soluble compounds whose molecules enable a therapeutic change in human physiology.