Conjugation of linoleic acid over a hydrogen pre-activated heterogeneous catalyst.

Development of a new heterogeneous catalytic pathway for isomerization of linoleic acid to conjugated linoleic acids at mild reaction conditions over Ni/H-MCM-41 in a soluted system.

Effect of detergent on powder triboelectrification.

Triboelectrification of pharmaceutical powders during processing and manufacture may cause adhesion/cohesion effects, reduce fill and dose uniformity, affect powder flow and packing behaviour and even obstruct the manufacturing of the product. This paper presents the results of an experimental study on the triboelectrification of microcrystalline cellulose in contact with stainless steel pipes washed with several different detergents. Detergents and their concentrations were chosen to be similar to typical industrial manufacturing stages. The adhesion of powder to the surface had a considerable effect on the triboelectrification process. Therefore, polystyrene spheres were also charged in a similar way and the results were compared with the powder charging results. The results clearly indicate that detergent contamination on the pipe surface has a considerable effect on the generated charge. The detergents and powders used could be arranged in a triboelectric series with only one exception.

Effect of particle morphology on the triboelectrification in dry powder inhalers.

Electrostatic charge of lactoses of different particle morphology and amorphous contents were measured during actuation from two different dry powder inhalers (DPIs). Triboelectric studies may give important information when new inhaler devices, materials and formulations are designed in order to improve the drug deposition. Two inhalers, Taifun (Focus Inhalation Oy, Finland) and Clickhaler (Innovata Biomed Ltd., UK) were filled with lactose powders which were spray dried from different solutions or suspensions of lactose, ethanol and water. Differences in the amorphous contents were determined with isothermal microcalorimetry (IMC) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) and the particle morphology was examined with laser diffraction and electron microscopy (SEM). Samples were actuated from the inhalers at given intervals into the Faraday pail and the generated charges were recorded. Increase in the water concentration of the feed suspension had negligible effect on the charging until it exceeded 70%. Reproducibility of the measurement was found to be better with samples of homogenous particles and higher crystallinity while more amorphous samples with different morphology and wide particle size distribution showed change in the sign of the charge in addition to higher variations of the magnitude. In this study we show that different inhalers, as well as the morphology of the lactose powder, has noticeable effects on the generated charge which has previously been shown to affect the deposition of the drug and the function of an inhaler.