Thermal Stability and Decomposition Kinetic Studies of Acyclovir and Zidovudine Drug Compounds

Investigations on thermal behavior of drug samples such as acyclovir and zidovudine are interesting not only for obtaining stability information for their processing in pharmaceutical industry but also for predicting their shelf lives and suitable storage conditions. The present work describes thermal behaviors and decomposition kinetics of acyclovir and zidovudine in solid state, studied by some thermal analysis techniques including differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and simultaneous thermogravimetry-differential thermal analysis (TG/DTA). TG analysis revealed that thermal degradation of the acyclovir and zidovudine is started at the temperatures of 400 degrees C and 190 degrees C, respectively. Meanwhile, TG-DTA analysis of acyclovir indicated that this drug melts at about 256 degrees C. However, melting of zidovudine occurred at 142 degrees C, which is 100 degrees C before starting its decomposition (242 degrees C). Different heating rates were applied to study the DSC behavior of drug samples in order to compute their thermokinetic and thermodynamic parameters by non-isothermal kinetic methods. Thermokinetic data showed that both drugs at the room temperature have slow degradation reaction rates and long shelf lives. However, acyclovir is considerably more thermally stable than zidovudine.