Powders & tablets Flashcards
Define powders
Powders are a mixture of solid particles (mostly heterogenous system)
Which characterstics of powders are important for formulating drugs
- particle size
- surface area
- Powder volume and density
- powder flow
- compression properties
Advantages of tablets
- Easy to carry
- Easy to take
- Coveniant
- Controllable release rate
- Easy to scale up
List the 4 ways of describing particle size
List and briefly describe common methods of particle size analysis and separation
- Sieving - are classified based on the sieve aperture diameter (expressed in µm) e.g. a sieve 1000 means that the sieve aperture diameter is 1000 µm (i.e. 1 mm)
- Light microscopy (2D images)
- Electron microscopy (SEM, TEM)
How does particle size effect processing
- Drug bioavailability (dissolution)
- Settling rate (suspensions)
- When making homogenous mixture e.g. if particles are different sizes its hard to mix evenly
- Flowability - powder flow is inversely proportional to particle size
Define bulk and true volume
* Bulk volume – total volume of specific mass of material, which is
occu
What is flowability
- Powder flow is inversely proportional to particle
size - Particle size plays a major role in
powder flow. When the particle
size is too small, the cohesive
forces between particles are high
and the flowability is reduced. - Other factors like density and surface area effect flowability
How to calculate density
density (p) = mass (g) / volume (cm3)
Methods for particle size reduction
- Cutting method
- Attrition method
- Compression method
- Impact method
- Combined (impact and attrition) - ball mill
Examples of equipment used for particle size reduction - ball mill
– Important to operate at an appropriate angular velocity (speed)
– Amount of material used is also crucial
- Angular velocity (AV) - the rate of change of the angular position of a
rotating body… or simply said, the speed at which a body is rotated
- Critical angular velocity – the velocity at which the gravitational pull becomes equal to the centrifugal forces; also know as the break-up velocity
Briefly discuss the factors effecting the efficiency of a ball mill
- Angular velocity (AV) - the rate of change of the angular position of a
rotating body… or simply said, the speed at which a body is rotated - Critical angular velocity – the velocity at which the gravitational pull becomes equal to the centrifugal forces; also know as the break-up velocity
Which factors are taken into account when choosing the mill used
Describe the role of different excipients - fillers
- Fillers (e.g. dilutents or bulkers) used to give necessary bulk of formation
- Colourants
- Sweeteners
- Flavouring agents
Binders as an excipient
- Binders act as glue
- e.g. gelatin, starch, calcium phosphate, lactose, calcium phosphate