Solid Phase and Stability Investigation of a Co-Crystal in the L-Valine/L-Leucine System

Some amino acid systems are known to exhibit solid solution and/or co-crystal behavior upon crystallization, which significantly affects their phase diagrams and complicates the design of their purification processes. Such behaviors are observed in the L-valine/L-leucine system. In this work, the formation and stability of a 3:1 co-crystal of the two amino acids (designated as V3L) is further investigated. To accomplish the formation, liquid-assisted grinding, slurry equilibration, and sublimation experiments were performed and analyzed via HPLC and PXRD. Additionally, periodic DFT calculations were used to calculate lattice energies and determine the thermodynamics of possible solid phases. Experimental results show a clear metastability of the investigated V3L co-crystals when compared to its stable solid solution. The calculations underline the metastability and the possible formation of continuous solid solutions between L-valine and L-leucine since lattice energy differences between pure amino acids and mixed compositions are negligible. This previously unknown phase behavior can be used to assess the influence of V3L on the amino acid purification process and provides a basis for investigating similar systems with small energy differences between pure and mixed compositions in future studies. In addition, it demonstrates the particular variability of solid phases and their relationships in such simple but biologically important amino acid systems.