Sugar–polymer hydrogen bond interactions in lyophilized amorphous mixtures

The objective of this work was to investigate hydrogen bonding interactions between a variety of glass-forming sugars and a model polymer, poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP), in binary amorphous solid solutions, produced by lyophilization. The glass transition temperatures of the sugars and sugar-PVP colyophilized mixtures were assessed using differential scanning calorimetry. The hydrogen bonding interactions between each sugar and PVP were monitored using FT-Raman spectroscopy. Sucrose was found to hydrogen bond to a greater extent with PVP at a particular sugar:polymer ratio than the other disaccharides studied including trehalose and the trisaccharide raffinose. Maltodextrins showed a decreased tendency to hydrogen bond with the polymer compared to the lower molecular weight sugars. The extent of hydrogen bonding was found to correlate inversely with the glass transition temperature of the sugar, with the tendency to hydrogen bond decreasing as the Tg increased. The importance of hydrogen bonding interactions to the thermodynamics of mixing in amorphous solids is discussed.