Search

Context: Electrospraying was used in drug particle production. Objective: The aim of the research was to evaluate the possibilities to produce drug particles with desired pharmaceutical properties by electrospraying. In particular, the effect of drying pressure on particle properties was studied. Materials and methods: A poorly water soluble model drug (budesonide) was dissolved in chloroform, and the solution was atomized by electrospraying. Following this, the charged droplets were neutralized and dried in a drying chamber. The pressure in the drying chamber was varied. The dried particles were collected and analyzed. Results: The pressure reduction had a slight impact on particle size distribution. The particles produced in reduced pressure turned out to be notably more porous than the particles produced in atmospheric pressure. The pressure reduction also affects the degree of crystallinity of the product. The dissolution of the particles produced in reduced pressures was faster to a certain extent than that of the particles produced in atmospheric pressure. Discussion and conclusions: A setup for electrospraying materials in a reduced pressure was presented. The pressure reduction had a notable impact on particle morphology. The possibilities to tailor the particle properties during electrospraying were studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to investigate early formulation screening in small scale with a miniaturized fluid bed device. Altogether eight different batches were granulated in a Multipart Microscale Fluid bed Powder processor (MMFP) with constant process conditions using electrostatic atomization. Atomization voltage and granulation liquid flow rate were kept constant. Acid acetylsalicylic was used as model active pharmaceutical ingredient (API), lactose monohydrate, microcrystalline cellulose and polyvinylpyrrolidone were used as excipients. Granule size distributions were measured with spatial filtering technique. Friability test was performed by spinning granules in the mixer with glass beads. Compressibility of the granules was evaluated by tableting and the breaking force of the tablets was measured. Multivariate analysis, namely partial least squares regression and multilinear regression were applied to the data. It was possible to generate granules of different compositions rapidly employing MMFP with electrostatic atomization fast and acquire reliable and logical results with only small amount of material. However, a major challenge was to find suitable analytical methods for such small batches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of an experimental study on the triboelectrification of glucose powder in a glass pipe, and the role of smaller particles of different material mixed with a main phase. Mixtures of different concentrations were charged by sliding them down into the Faraday cup via a glass pipe. The influence of sticking to the inner surface of the pipe was examined with a microscope equipped with camera and an image analysis program. Smaller particles at the pipe surface partly change the glucose–glass contacts to the glucose–adhered powder contacts and this has a significant effect on the sign and the amount of transferred charge. The relative coverage of the glass pipe by small particles can be used as a measure of the charging ability of an additive, and can also give information regarding the sufficient amount of additive which would lead to neutral charge. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The flow behaviour of binary mixtures of paracetamol and different grades of microcrystalline celluloses (Avicel® PH101, PH102 and PH200) was studied using a new testing method. The effect of physical characteristics of the powder including tribocharging and the addition of lubricant on the flow properties of the different mixtures was investigated. As expected, the flowability of the samples was affected both by the amount of paracetamol and the physical properties of microcrystalline celluloses (MCC) and the mixtures. The effect of lubricant varied depending on the MCC grade: magnesium stearate was able to improve the flowability of the mixtures containing PH102 and PH200 while it did not affect the flowability of PH101. Multivariate analysis showed that the flow of the binary excipient-drug mixtures through an orifice is affected by several phenomena, such as charging, surface moisture, carrier payload and particle size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]