TITLE:
Micronization of Cetirizine Using Rapid Expansion of Supercritical Carbon Dioxide
AUTHORS:
Ali Zeinolabedini Hezave, Mostafa Lashkarbolooki, Feridun Esmaeilzadeh
KEYWORDS:
Cetirizine, RESS, Micronization, SEM
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.2 No.4,
April
29,
2015
ABSTRACT: During the past decades, producing micro- and nano-particles of drugs is
gaining attention since it is possible to modify the solubility of insoluble
drugs in the gastronical fluids significantly. Respect to this fact, in the
current investigation, rapid expansion of supercritical carbon dioxide (RESS)
for fabricating the micro-particles of cetirizine is investigated. In this way,
different operational conditions including extraction pressure (160 - 220 bar),
extraction temperature (308 - 328 K), nozzle length (1 - 8 mm), and nozzle
diameter (450 - 1700 μm) are examined. The performed experiments revealed that
among the examined operational conditions, nozzle diameter and extraction
pressure introduce significant effects on the reduction of particle size
compared with the other examined parameters. The results revealed that it is possible
to reduce the cetirizine particles from 98.52 μm to 0.53 μm using RESS. In
addition, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis is performed to
investigate the effect of different operational parameters on the morphology of
the particles of cetirizine. The results demonstrate that RESS not only is able
to reduce the particle size of the cetirizine, but also is able to change the
morphology of the cetirizine particles from the irregular shape to spherical
form.