Chemistry Graduate and Undergraduate Program.
e-mail: vilmali.lopez@upr.edu
Office: Molecular Sciences Research Center Office #247
Office Phone: 787-523-5303
Lab Phone: 787-764-0000 ext. 88553
UPR Address: Molecular Sciences Research Center (UPR’s MSRC) 1390 Ponce De León Ave. San Juan, Puerto Rico 00926
Homepage: https://cdiupr.weebly.com
Social Networks
Facebook Group Website: https://www.facebook.com/LopezStelzerLabs/
Facebook Outreach Website: https://www.facebook.com/CreaCienciaPR/
Research Interests
-materials science
-pharmaceutical sciences
-polymer science
-analytical chemistry
-polymorphism
Research
Our laboratory, the Crystallization Design Institute, provides expertise-based molecular and engineering solutions for materials characterization, solid form discovery & design, and crystallization process development to the academic and industrial sector. We aim to understand how molecular crystals (salt, co-crystals, polymorphs, etc.) form so that we can control and apply these crystallizations to better every day products (pharmaceutical and insecticide formulations, electronic and energetic materials, etc.) and processes (continuous pharmaceutical manufacturing).
1. López-Mejías, V.; Kampf, J.W.; Matzger, A.J. Polymer-Induced Heteronucleation of Tolfenamic Acid: Structural Investigation of a Pentamorph, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2009, 131, 4554 -4555.
2. McClelland, A.A.; López-Mejías, V.; Matzger, A.J.; Chen, Z. Peering at a Buried Polymer-Crystal Interface: Probing Heterogeneous Nucleation by Sum Frequency Generation Vibrational Spectroscopy, Langmuir, 2011, 27, 2162- 2165.
3. López-Mejías, V.; Knight, J.L.; Matzger, A.J.; Brooks III C.L. On the Mechanism of Polymorph Selection by Polymer Heteronuclei, Langmuir, 2011, 27, 7575-7579.
4. López-Mejías, V.; Kampf, J.W.; Matzger, A.J. Nonamorphism in Flufenamic acid and a New Record for a Polymorphic Compound with Solved Structures, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2012, 134, 9872-9875.
5. López-Mejías, V.; Myerson, A.S.; Trout, B.L. Geometric Design of Heterogeneous Nucleation Sites on Biocompatible Surfaces, Cryst. Growth & Des., 2013, 13, 3835-3841.
6. Curcio, E.; López-Mejías, V.; Di Profio, G.; Fontananovam E.; Drioli, E.; Trout, B.L.; Myerson, A.S.; Regulating Nucleation Kinetics Through Molecular Interactions at the Polymer-Solute Interface, Cryst. Growth & Des., 2014, 14, 678-686.
7. López-Mejías, V.; Eral, H.B.; Doyle, P.S.; Myerson, A.S.; Trout, B.L. Towards Control of Nucleation and Encapsulation with Alginate Hydrogels: A Biocompatible Vehicle for Hydrophilic and Hydrophobic Drugs, Cryst. Growth &Des., 2014, 14, 2073-2082.
8. López-Mejías, V.; Matzger, A.J., Structure-Polymorphism Study of Fenamates: Toward Developing an Understanding of the Polymorphophore, Cryst. Growth & Des., 2015, 15, 3955-3962.
9. Hernández Espinell, J. R.; López-Mejías, V.; Stelzer T. Revealing Polymorphic Phase Transformations in Polymerbased Hot-Melt Extrusion Processes Cryst. Growth Des., 2018, 18 (4), 1995–2002.
10. Zorrilla-Veloz, R. I.; Stelzer, T.; López-Mejías, V. Measurement and Correlation of the Solubility of 5-Fluorouracil in Pure and Binary Solvents. J. Chem. Eng. Data 2018, 63 (10), 3809–3817. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jced.8b00425.
11. George De la Rosa, M. V.; Santiago, R.; Malavé Romero, J.; Duconge, J.; Monbaliu, J.-C.; López-Mejías, V.; Stelzer, T. Solubility Determination and Correlation of Warfarin Sodium 2-Propanol Solvate in Pure, Binary, and Ternary Solvent Mixtures. J. Chem. Eng. Data 2019. 64 (4), 1399-1413.
12. Vázquez Marrero, V. R.; Piñero Berríos, C.; De Dios Rodríguez, L.;
Stelzer, T.; López-Mejías, V. In the Context of Polymorphism: Accurate Measurement, and Validation of Solubility Data, Cryst. Growth Des. 2019, 19, 4101−4108. DOI: 10.1021/acs.cgd.9b00529