Influence of surfactants and interactive mixing on the cohesiveproperties of a poorly wettable solid

Abstract

The effect of different surface active agents and interactive mixing with high density carrier particles on the dispersion of cohesive furosemide particle agglomerates in aqueous mediums were studied. The individual mean volume particle size of the furosemide powder was 2.5 μm when measured with a dry dispersion apparatus. The particle size distribution was unimodal. Suspended in water the particle size distribution consisted of three distinguishable populations. The addition of surface active agents led to a decrease in the mean particle size, fewer populations were observed and the mean size of these populations were smaller. The addition of polyoxyethylene sorbitan monooleate, 0.011 g dm −3, leads to a decrease in the mean volume particle size from 32.31 μm measured in water, to 11.01 μm Depending on the mixing time, 64 min and longer, interactive mixing with high density sodium chloride particles was the most effective at dispersing the furosemide agglomerates but a bimodal particle size distribution was still observed. The mean volume particle size of furosemide particles mixed for 128 min, 7.79 μm was closest to the mean volume particle size measured with the dry dispersion technique.