Theoretical and experimental investigation of particle interactions in pharmaceutical powder blending

In pharmaceutical manufacturing practices, blending of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) with excipients is a crucial step in that homogeneity of active ingredient after blending is a key issue for the quality assurance of final products. Inadequate knowledge of the interdependence between raw material properties and their impact on the blending process often gives rise to product variance and failure and therefore higher manufacturing costs. Since particles are the basic unit of powder flow, a fundamental understanding of the crucial particle characteristics and particle interactions is essential for a good prediction and control of the blending process. In this work, inter-particle adhesion forces including van der Waals force, capillary force and electrostatic force of lactose monohydrate and microcrystalline cellulose were measured by the atomic force microcopy and other techniques. Their correlations with particle properties and environmental variables were elucidated quantitatively through mathematical modeling, and their impacts on powder blending homogeneity were investigated experimentally. It was found that surface roughness, electrostatic surface charges, moisture sensitivity as well as relative humidity are crucial parameters to determine inter-particle adhesion forces.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Chemical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Pu, Yu, Ph. D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Charles L. Cooney.

• Chemical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/38962
• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Identifier URI

http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/38962

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/38962