Crystallization

Crystallization is one of the strongest techniques for the purification of organic compounds. In nearly all industrial processes crystallization is used as a method to produce, purify or recover solid compounds. Especially for pharmaceutical compounds crystallization is usually the preferred isolation procedure. In addition, crystallization is frequently used to improve the enantiomeric excess of partially enriched chiral compounds obtained by i.e. (catalytic) asymmetric synthesis or biocatalytic processes.

Crystallization can also be used to separate the enantiomers of a racemate by diastereomeric salt formation or by preferential crystallization (Pasteurian resolution). Combined with in situ racemization crystallization induced resolutions can be turned into efficient high-yield processes, i.e. crystallization-induced diastereomeric transformation (CIDT), Viedma ripening and temperature cycling induced deracemization (TCID)