UNIT-CELL DETERMINATION OF SOTALOL HYDROCHLORIDE BY POWDER X-RAY-DIFFRACTION

The unit cell dimensions of sotalol hydrochloride have been determined by powder diffraction using X-ray data collected on a laboratory sour ce. A Bayesian method for estimating the number of reflections contrib uting to any given peak has been used to provide the best estimates of the reflection positions for input into a powder indexing program. Th e method should help extend the range of applicability of laboratory p owder X-ray diffraction to problems involving large, low symmetry unit cells and is equally applicable to synchrotron X-ray and neutron diff raction data. Sotalol hydrochloride has a monoclinic unit cell of volu me 3165 Angstrom(3) and is thus a valid representative of a large subc lass of organic compounds of pharmaceutical interest.