Pharmaceutical Chemistry

Biography

Biography: Afzal R Mohammed

Abstract

Dry powder coating is a micro particle engineering process and involves the adsorption of “guest” particles onto the surface of “carrier” particles. This process requires conditions that enable frequent contact between guest and carrier particles, particle adsorption, and ultimately lowering of surface energy of the binary mixture. Although the theoretical paradigm for dry-coating is known, progress and pragmatic translation have been limited owing to the lack of processes and devices capable of producing composite particles while maintaining the innate characteristics of both components (guest and carrier). For instance, mechanofusion works on the principle of high centrifugal forces that generate heat thereby limiting its pharmaceutical application to heat labile materials.  Similarly, processing materials using hybridiser can lead to particle attrition. One of the distinct advantages of this technology is the cross application of the fundamental principles to develop solutions for a wide range of different problems. For instance understanding the role of surface texture of carrier particles on the strength of interaction between the guest and carrier particles can provide vital information on its impact on flowability, guest stability (as a composite particle) as well as functionality of the resultant particles. Research at Aston University within our group has led to the development of a dry particle coater which can produce micro functionalised particles. We have characterised the resultant particles using range of techniques including AFM, surface interferometry, confocal microscopy, inverse gas chromatography and particle size analysis. The resultant particles were studied for flowability enhancement, content uniformity and micro particle based modified drug release.