Authors

Ami ShahFollow

Date of Completion

Spring 4-18-2024

Thesis Advisor(s)

Bodhisattwa Chaudhuri; Tanu Mehta; Brian Aneskievich

Honors Major

Pharmacy Studies

Disciplines

Medicinal and Pharmaceutical Chemistry | Pharmaceutics and Drug Design | Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

Abstract

Powders are a vital component of the pharmaceutical industry as they provide the basis for many solid dosage forms like tablets and capsules. Although, when using powders a common challenge is electrostatic charge accumulation due to numerous particle-particle and particle-wall collisions. This accumulated charge can lead then to poor powder homogeneity and compromised powder flow properties. In this study, tribocharging of pharmaceutical powders was analyzed using various V-blenders and mixing times . The evaluated blenders include: Aluminum, Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), and surface modified Aluminum-PVC. Using the blenders, the model drug, Ibuprofen, was processed for different time intervals such as 5, 10, 20, and 30 minutes at 10% blender fill volume. For further analysis, the obtained results were then compared with a previous study conducted by our group using 5% blender fill volume. After analyzing the results, it was observed that a surface-modified blender leads to a significant reduction in tribocharging and for all blenders, there is a general increase in charge until 30 minutes of which a saturation point occurs. Additionally, the cross-study analysis demonstrated an increase in fill volume can result in a decrease in tribocharging of ibuprofen which could be attributed to a decrease in the number of particle wall collisions.

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