Solubility and Partition Coefficients of 5-Fluorouracil in ScCO2 and ScCO2/Poly(l-lactic acid)

Abstract

The solubility of a drug in supercritical carbon dioxide (ScCO2) is an important parameter for preparing the controlled release drug by supercritical fluid technology. In this work, a test technique of the flowing solubility is developed, and the test apparatus is set up based on an improved dynamic method. The solubility of 5-fluorouracil (5-Fu) in ScCO2 with or without the cosolvent of ethanol is measured. The effects of the operating parameters including the pressure, the temperature, and the concentration of cosolvent on the solubility of 5-Fu in ScCO2 are investigated experimentally. The obtained solubility data are correlated by Chrastil and Mendez-Santiago and Teja models. The average absolute relative deviation (AARD) of the calculated value with the experimental ones is 3.52 % by the Chrastil model without cosolvent, and it is 14.6 % by the Mendez-Santiago and Teja model with cosolvent of ethanol. The results show that the addition of the ethanol as a cosolvent could significantly increase the so...