Pure Curcumin Spherulites from Impure Solutions Nonclassical Crystallization.

Crystallization experiments performed with highly supercooled solutions produced highly pure (>99 wt %) and highly crystalline mesocrystals of curcumin from impure solutions (∼22% of two structurally similar impurities) in one step. These mesocrystals exhibited a crystallographic hierarchy and were composed of perfectly or imperfectly aligned nanometer-thick crystallites. X-ray diffraction and spectroscopic analysis confirmed that the spherulites are a new solid form of curcumin.

Preparation, stabilisation, isolation and tableting of valsartan nanoparticles using a semi-continuous carrier particle mediated process.

This work investigated the technical feasibility of preparing, stabilizing and isolating poorly water-soluble drug nanoparticles via a small-scale antisolvent precipitation process operating in semi-continuous mode. Specifically, a novel semi-continuous process was demonstrated for the carrier particle mediated production, stabilization and isolation of valsartan nanoparticles into a solid form using montmorillonite clay particles as the carrier. The semi-continuous process operated robustly for the full duration of the experiment (~16 min) and steady-state conditions were reached after ~5 min.

Modelling and understanding powder flow properties and compactability of selected active pharmaceutical ingredients, excipients and physical mixtures from critical material properties.

The development of solid dosage forms and manufacturing processes are governed by complex physical properties of the powder and the type of pharmaceutical unit operation the manufacturing processes employs. Suitable powder flow properties and compactability are crucial bulk level properties for tablet manufacturing by direct compression. It is also generally agreed that small scale powder flow measurements can be useful to predict large scale production failure.

Investigations into ultrasound induced atomization.

The present work deals with measurements of the droplet size distribution in an ultrasonic atomizer using photographic analysis with an objective of understanding the effect of different equipment parameters such as the operating frequency, power dissipation and the operating parameters such as the flow rate and liquid properties on the droplet size distribution. Mechanistic details about the atomization phenomena have also been established using photographic analysis based on the capture of the growth of the instability and sudden ejection of droplets with high velocity. Velocity of these droplets has been measured by capturing the motion of droplets as streaks.