In earlier work, a nonlinear enthalpy-entropy compensation was observed for the solubility of phenacetin in dioxane-water mixtures. This effect had not been earlier reported for the solubility of drugs in solvent mixtures. To gain insight into the compensation effect, the behavior of the apparent thermodynamic magnitudes for the solubility of paracetamol, acetanilide, and nalidixic acid is studied in this work. The solubility of these drugs was measured at several temperatures in dioxane-water mixtures. DSC analysis was performed on the original powders and on the solid phases after equilibration with the solvent mixture. The thermal properties of the solid phases did not show significant changes. The three drugs display a solubility maximum against the cosolvent ratio. The solubility peaks of acetanilide and nalidixic acid shift to a more polar region at the higher temperatures. Nonlinear van't Hoff plots were observed for nalidixic acid whereas acetanilide and paracetamol show linear behavior at the temperature range studied. The apparent enthalpies of solution are endothermic going through a maximum at 50% dioxane. Two different mechanisms, entropy and enthalpy, are suggested to be the driving forces that increase the solubility of the three drugs. Solubility is entropy controlled at the water-rich region (0-50% dioxane) and enthalpy controlled at the dioxane-rich region (50-100% dioxane). The enthalpy-entropy compensation analysis also suggests that two different mechanisms, dependent on cosolvent ratio, are involved in the solubility enhancement of the three drugs. The plots of deltaH versus deltaG are nonlinear, and the slope changes from positive to negative above 50% dioxane. The compensation effect for the thermodynamic magnitudes of transfer from water to the aqueous mixtures can be described by a common empirical nonlinear relationship, with the exception of paracetamol, which follows a separate linear relationship at dioxane ratios above 50%. The results corroborate earlier findings with phenacetin. The similar pattern shown by the drugs studied suggests that the nonlinear enthalpy-entropy compensation effect may be characteristic of the solubility of semipolar drugs in dioxane-water mixtures.

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