Processing of pharmaceutical materials by electrospraying under reduced pressure

Abstract

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.

• Amorphous material
• budesonide
• dissolution
• electrostatic atomization
• porous material

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Markku Heinonen and the Materials Research Laboratory (Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Turku) for assistance with SEM images, and Ermei Mäkilä (Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Turku) for assistance with nitrogen adsorption measurements.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. Financial support from the Academy of Finland (Grant no. 131854) is acknowledged.