A STUDY ON PARTICLE SURFACE ROUGHNESS AND ITS IMPACT ON TABLET AND INHALER TECHNOLOGY

Abstract

Powder flow is an integral component in pharmaceutical manufacturing. Various powder flow methodologies were examined and correlated with each other using lactose of various shape and size. In-die powder flow during tableting was studied using lactose particles of different surface roughness. Rougher particles had higher rearrangement energy requirement during tableting, decreasing the energy available for bond formation. The effects of roller compaction on materials of different deformation properties were examined. Roller compaction of elastic material was found to improve tableting properties, while brittle materials were insensitive to roller compaction and plastic materials exhibited a roll force dependent decrease in tensile strength of the tablets. The impact of surface roughness of carrier particles for dry powder inhalers was also examined. Rougher carrier particles increased the fine particle fraction of the inhaler formulation. A new method of fine particle fraction collection was developed for the use in dissolution and permeability testing of inhalational drugs.