Compaction properties of crystalline pharmaceutical ingredients according to the Walker model and nanomechanical attributes

Insights into the role of tooling characteristics on compressibility evolution in non-flat faced tablets

The robustness of tablet manufacturability largely depends on compressibility behavior of a powder. The compressibility assessment is traditionally conducted on cylindrical flat-faced compacts in contrast to the fact that marketed tablets are majorly produced using non-flat faced or shaped toolings. The present work demonstrates the feasibility of quantifying average compressibility on shaped toolings through a proof-of-concept study by investigating the central band portion and the entire volume of the tablet, which led to several notable findings. Firstly, the yield stress (deformability) was found independent of type of tooling for a given powder in the in-die condition, but for the same tooling it conversely spanned over a wide range in the out-die condition due to characteristic elastic recovery. Secondly, the yield stress parameter correlated with the change in band volume of the shaped tablet with applied compaction pressure, thereby establishing an orthogonal approach to assess compressibility on non-flat faced toolings. The study emphasizes that tooling characteristics may affect compressibility and tablet robustness of a same powder, which should be practiced cautiously in drug product manufacturing.

Mechanical Anisotropy and Tabletability of Famotidine Polymorphs

In the drug development process, early characterization of solid forms can help to envisage the bulk processability of a powder, which should assist in selecting an optimal solid form. In...

Global Analysis of the Mechanical Properties of Organic Crystals

Organic crystals, although widely studied, have not been considered nascent candidate materials in the engineering design. Here we summarize the reported mechanical properties of organic crystals reported over the past three decades, and we establish a global mechanical property profile that can be used to predict and identify mechanically robust organic crystals. Being composed of light elements, organic crystals populate a narrow region in the mechanical property-density space between soft, disordered organic materials and stiff, ordered materials. Two subsets of extraordinarily stiff and hard organic crystalline materials were identified and rationalized by the normalized number density, strength and directionality of their intermolecular interactions. We conclude that the future light-weight, soft, all-organic components in devices should capitalize on the combination of long-range structural order and softness as the greatest asset of organic single crystals.

How can single particle compression and nanoindentation contribute to the understanding of pharmaceutical powder compression?

The deformation behaviour of a powder and, thus, of the individual particles is a crucial parameter in powder compaction and affects powder compressibility and compactibility. The classical approach for the characterization of the deformation behaviour is the performance of powder compression experiments combined with the application of mathematical models, such as the Heckel-Model, for the derivation of characteristic compression parameters. However, the correlation of these parameters with the deformation behaviour is physically often not well understood. Single particle compression and nanoindentation enables the in-depth investigation of the deformation behaviour of particulate materials. In this study, single particle compression experiments were performed for the characterization of the deformation behaviour of common pharmaceutical excipients and active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) with various, irregular particle morphologies of industrial relevance and the findings are compared with the results from powder compression. The technique was found useful for the characterization and clarification of the qualitative deformation behaviour. However, the derivation of a quantitative functional relationship between single particle deformation behavior and powder compression is limited. Nanoindentation was performed as complementary technique for the characterization of the micromechanical behavior of the APIs. A linear relationship between median indentation hardness and material densification strength as characteristic parameter derived by in-die powder compression analysis is found.

Structure–property correlations in piracetam polytypes

Analysis of piracetam polytypes using energy-vector models, thermal expansion and nanoindentation measurements, produces a plausible link between their crystal structures and tableting behaviour.

High-Molecular-Weight Hypromellose from Three Different Suppliers: Effects of Compression Speed, Tableting Equipment, and Moisture on the Compaction

Use of higher tableting speeds is gaining increasing importance for pharmaceutical industry. There is a profound lack of new studies of mechanical properties of hypromellose, and none of them evaluate different suppliers. Thus, the objective of this study was to investigate flow and compaction properties of different grades of hypromellose (type 2208) from three different suppliers, with particular focus on the effect of the compression speed. The flow properties were determined using flow time, shear cell, Carr index, and constant B from initial part of Heckel profile. Compaction properties were quantified using "out-of-die" Heckel, Walker, and Kuentz-Leuenberger models; two tensile strength profiles (tabletability and compactibility); and elastic recovery. Compaction was performed by both an instrumented single-punch press and a high-speed rotary press simulator. Due to larger, rounder, and smoother particles, both Methocel™ DC grades together with Benecel™ K4M showed better flow properties compared with other materials, with Metolose® K100M having the worst flow. Overall, Benecel™ K100M and Metolose® K100M showed the best compaction properties, closely followed by Metolose® K4M. Heckel analysis showed the highest compressibility of Benecel™ K100M, followed by both Methocel™ DC grades. Kuentz-Leuenberger model showed to have no practical superiority in comparison with Heckel model in the compression pressure range used. Results of strain rate sensitivity showed that Methocel™ K4M DC was the least susceptible to change of tableting speed, followed by Methocel™ K100M DC and both grades of Benecel™, and in contrast, both grades of Metolose® were the most sensitive. Effect of moisture on compaction was also studied.

Global Performance Indices for Dynamic Crystals as Organic Thermal Actuators

Crystal adaptronics is an emergent materials science discipline at the intersection of solid-state chemistry and mechanical engineering that explores the dynamic nature of mechanically reconfigurable, motile, and explosive crystals. Adaptive molecular crystals bring to materials science a qualitatively new set of properties that associate long-range structural order with softness and mechanical compliance. However, the full potential of this class of materials remains underexplored and they have not been considered as materials of choice in an engineer's toolbox. A set of general performance metrics that can be used for quantification of the performance of these prospective dynamic materials as micro- and macroactuators is presented. The indices are calculated on two selected representatives of thermosalient solids-materials that undergo rapid martensitic transitions accompanied with macroscopic locomotion. Benchmarking of their performance against extensive set of data for the existing actuator classes and visualization using materials property charts uncover the hidden potential and advantages of dynamic crystals, while they also reveal their drawbacks for actual application as actuators. Altogether the results indicate that, if the challenges with fabrication and implementation in devices are overcome, adaptive molecular crystals can have far-reaching implications for emerging fields such as smart microelectronics and soft microrobotics.

Mechanical properties of starch esters at particle and compact level - Comparisons and exploration of the applicability of Hiestand's equation to predict tablet strength

Hydrophobic starch esters have potential as tablet matrix formers in controlled drug delivery. The mechanical properties of native starch (SN), starch acetate (SA) and starch propionate (SP) were studied at particle and compact level. Particle microhardness and modulus of elasticity were evaluated by nanoindentation. Force-displacement data of compressed powder were analyzed using Heckel in conjunction with piecewise regression, Kuentz-Leuenberger, Kawakita and Adams models, and yield pressure parameters were derived. Starches were characterized for chemical structure by Raman spectroscopy, crystallinity from powder x-ray diffraction (PXRD) patterns and surface energy from apparent contact angle measurements. A-type starch reflections were absent in the PXRDs of esters indicating greater amorphicity. Consequently, the particle microhardness of starch esters decreased leading to greater deformation during compaction and lower values of yield pressure parameters. These parameters increased with microhardness and ranked the starches in the order: SP < SA < SN. Fitting the experimental data into Hiestand's bonding index equation, a linear correlation (R² = 0.902) was established between experimental and calculated tablet strength describing results of all starches, when Adams (τ_ο') yield pressure was used as the 'effective compression pressure' in the above equation.

Aggregate Elasticity and Tabletability of Molecular Solids: a Validation and Application of Powder Brillouin Light Scattering

Describing the elastic deformation of single-crystal molecular solids under stress requires a comprehensive determination of the fourth-rank stiffness tensor (C_ijkl). Single crystals are, however, rarely utilized in industrial applications, and thus averaging techniques (e.g., the Voigt or Reuss approach) are employed to reduce the C_ijkl (or its inverse S_ijkl) to polycrystalline aggregate mechanical moduli. With increasing elastic anisotropy, the Voigt and Reuss-averaged aggregate moduli can diverge dramatically and, provided that drug molecules almost exclusively crystallize into low-symmetry space groups, warrants a significant need for accurate aggregate mechanical moduli. This elasticity data, which currently is largely absent for pharmaceutical materials, is expected to aid understanding how materials respond to direct compression and tablet formation. Powder Brillouin light scattering (p-BLS) has recently demonstrated facile access to porosity-independent, aggregate mechanical moduli. In this study, we extend our previous p-BLS model for obtaining mechanical properties and validate our approach against a broad library of molecular solids with diverse intermolecular interaction topologies and with previously determined C_ijkl which permits benchmarking our results. Our Young's and shear moduli determined with p-BLS strongly correlate, with limited bias (i.e., a near 1:1 relation), with the Voigt-averaged Young's and shear moduli determined using the C_ijkl. Through follow-on tabletability studies, we introduce initial classifications of tabletability behavior based on the results of our p-BLS studies and the apparent elastic anisotropy. With further development, this approach represents a robust and novel method to potentially identify materials for optimum tabletability at early developmental stages.

Development and Optimization of a Starch-Based Co-processed Excipient for Direct Compression Using Mixture Design

The development of novel excipients with enhanced functionality has been explored using particle engineering by co-processing. The aim of this study was to improve the functionality of tapioca starch (TS) for direct compression by co-processing with gelatin (GEL) and colloidal silicon dioxide (CSD) in optimized proportions. Design of Experiment (DoE) was employed to optimize the composition of the co-processed excipient using the desirability function and other supporting studies as a basis for selecting the optimized formulation. The co-processed excipient (SGS) was thereafter developed by the method of co-fusion. Flow and compaction studies of SGS were carried out in comparison to its parent component (TS) and physical mixture (SGS-PM). Tablets were prepared by direct compression (DC) containing ibuprofen (200 mg) as a model for poor compressibility using SGS, Prosolv®, and StarLac® as multifunctional excipients. The optimized composition of SGS corresponded to TS (90%), GEL (7.5%), and CSD (2.5%). The functionality of SGS was improved relative to SGS-PM in terms of flow and compression. Tablets produced with SGS were satisfactory and conformed to USP specifications for acceptable tablets. SGS performed better than Prosolv® in terms of disintegration and was superior to StarLac with respect to tensile strength and disintegration time. The application of DoE was successful in optimizing and developing a starch-based co-processed excipient that can be considered for direct compression tableting.

Predicting finite-temperature properties of crystalline carbon dioxide from first principles with quantitative accuracy

The temperature-dependence of the crystalline carbon dioxide (phase I) structure, thermodynamics, and mechanical properties are predicted in excellent agreement with experiment over a 200 K temperature range using high-level electronic structure calculations.

Molecular crystal structures, thermodynamics, and mechanical properties can vary substantially with temperature, and predicting these temperature-dependencies correctly is important for many practical applications in the pharmaceutical industry and other fields. However, most electronic structure predictions of molecular crystal properties neglect temperature and/or thermal expansion, leading to potentially erroneous results. Here, we demonstrate that by combining large basis set second-order Møller–Plesset (MP2) or even coupled cluster singles, doubles, and perturbative triples (CCSD(T)) electronic structure calculations with a quasiharmonic treatment of thermal expansion, experimentally observable properties such as the unit cell volume, heat capacity, enthalpy, entropy, sublimation point and bulk modulus of phase I crystalline carbon dioxide can be predicted in excellent agreement with experiment over a broad range of temperatures. These results point toward a promising future for ab initio prediction of molecular crystal properties at real-world temperatures and pressures.