Interest in studying mixed systems of pharmaceutical relevance is not a new concept. From intrinsic polymorphism to complex final products, the challenges encountered by modern analytical scientists have multiplied both in number and in complexity.

Established techniques are often unable to provide both separation and identification of species in a mixed system, as they are used to probe chemistry such as with bulk spectroscopy, or individual particle characteristics such as with microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM).

Combining techniques capable of analysing micronscale particulates with absolute chemical specificity provides a new window into describing the complicated mixtures common in today’s competitive pharmaceutical market.