title: Quantification of Tribocharging of Pharmaceutical Powders in V-Blenders: Experiments, Multiscale Modeling, and Simulations.
abstract: Pharmaceutical powders are very prone to electrostatic charging by colliding and sliding contacts. In pharmaceutical formulation processes, particle charging is often a nuisance and can cause problems in the manufacture of products, such as affecting powder flow, fill, and dose uniformity. For a fundamental understanding of the powder triboelectrification, it is essential to study charge transfer under well-defined conditions. Hence, all experiments in the present study were conducted in a V-blender located inside a glove box with a controlled humidity of 20%. To understand tribocharging, different contact surfaces, namely aluminum, Teflon, poly methyl methacrylate, and nylon were used along with 2 pharmaceutical excipients and 2 drug substances. For the pharmaceutical materials, the work function values were estimated using MOPAC, a semiempirical molecular orbital package which has been previously used for the solid-state studies and molecular structure predictions. For a mechanistic understanding of tribocharging, a discrete element model incorporating charge transfer and electrostatic forces was developed. An effort was made to correlate tribocharging of pharmaceutical powders to properties such as cohesive energy density and surface energy. The multiscale model used is restricted as it considers only spherical particles with smooth surfaces. It should be used judiciously for other experimental assemblies because it does not represent a full validation of a tightly integrated model.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut 06269.
authors.forename: Shivangi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Naik
authors.affiliation: Material Sciences, Pfizer Inc, Groton, Connecticut 06340.
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hancock
authors.affiliation: Material Sciences, Pfizer Inc, Groton, Connecticut 06340.
authors.forename: Yuriy
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Abramov
authors.affiliation: Material Sciences, Pfizer Inc, Groton, Connecticut 06340.
authors.forename: Weili
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Pharmaceutical Surface Science Research Group, Pfizer Inc, Sandwich, Kent CT139NJ, UK.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rowland
authors.affiliation: Otto H. York Department of Chemical, Biological and Pharmaceutical Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, New Jersey 07102.
authors.forename: Zhonghui
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut 06269; Institute of Material Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut 06269. Electronic address: bodhi.chaudhuri@uconn.edu.
authors.forename: Bodhisattwa
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Chaudhuri
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D004339:Drug Compounding / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004867:Equipment Design; D005079:Excipients / Q000737:chemistry; D006813:Humidity; D007785:Lactose / Q000737:chemistry; D008956:Models, Chemical; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000737:chemistry; D011208:Powders / Q000737:chemistry*; D055672:Static Electricity; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D005079:Excipients; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations; D011208:Powders; D007785:Lactose
keywords: DEM; V-blender; tribocharging; work function