Spray Freeze-drying – The Process of Choice for Low Water Soluble Drugs?

Most of the novel highly potent drugs, developed on the basis of modern molecular medicine, taking into account cell surface recognition techniques, show poor water solubility. A chemical modification of the drug substance enhancing the solubility often decreases the pharmacological activity. Thus, as an alternative an increase of the solubility can be obtained by the reduction of the size of the drug particles. Unfortunately, it is often difficult to obtain micro or nanosized drug particles by classical or more advanced crystallization using supercritical gases or by milling techniques. In addition, nanosized particles are often not physically stable and need to be stabilized in an appropriate matrix. Thus, it may be of interest to manufacture directly nanosized drug particles stabilized in an inert hydrophilic matrix, i.e. nanostructured and nanocomposite systems. Solid solutions and solid dispersions represent nanostructured and nanocomposite systems. In this context, the use of the vacuum-fluidized-bed technique for the spray-drying of a low water soluble drug cosolubilized with a hydrophilic excipient in a polar organic solvent is discussed. In order to avoid the use of organic solvents, a special spray-freeze-drying technique working at atmospheric pressure is presented. This process is very suitable for temperature and otherwise sensitive drugs such as pharmaproteins.     

“Slow” active control of combustion instabilities by modification of liquid fuel spray properties

This paper describes an experimental investigation of the feasibility of using “slow” active control approaches, which “instantaneously” change liquid fuel spray properties, to suppress combustion instabilities. The objective of this control approach was to break up the feedback between the combustion process heat release and combustor pressure oscillations that drive the instability by changing the characteristics of the combustion process (e.g., the characteristic combustion time). To demonstrate the feasibility of such control, this study used a proprietary fuel injector (Nanomiser^TM), which can vary its fuel spray properties, to investigate the dependence of acoustics–combustion process coupling, i.e., the driving of combustion instabilities, upon the fuel spray properties. This study showed that by changing the spray characteristics it is possible to significantly damp combustion instabilities. Furthermore, using combustion zone chemiluminescence distributions, which were obtained by Abel’s deconvolution synchronized with measured acoustic data, it has been shown that the instabilities were mostly driven midway between the combustor centerline and wall, a short distance downstream from the flame holder, where the mean axial flow velocity is approximately zero in the vortex near the flame holder. The results of this study strongly suggest that a “slow” active control system that employs controllable fuel injectors could be effectively used to prevent the onset of detrimental combustion instabilities.     

Deposition conditions in tailoring the morphology of highly porous reticular films prepared by electrostatic spray deposition (ESD) technique

Spongy-like reticular structure is a unique morphology fabricated by electrostatic spray deposition (ESD) technique. The effects of solvent, substrate temperature, precursor feeding rate, static electric field strength, and deposition time on tailoring the reticular structure were investigated. Scanning electron microscopy was used to observe the film morphology. MnO_x or LiMn₂O₄ were selected as the model materials. It is found that in addition to the conventional solvent butyl carbitol, other kinds of solvents such as ethylene glycol and propylene glycol can also be used to obtain reticular films at a suitable substrate temperature. Porous films with a low cross-linking degree pore structure can be prepared by increasing precursor feeding rate or decreasing substrate temperature. Increasing the deposition time or the electric field strength helps to obtain reticular films with more homogeneous pore size distribution. In addition, the addition of a high boiling-point solvent in mixed alcohol solvent results in the increase of proper substrate temperature. It is concluded that the fluidity of the spray droplets on the surface of a hot substrate is an important factor to form a reticular film.     

Magnetic properties of lanthanum orthoferrite fine powders prepared by different chemical routes

Fine powders of lanthanum iron oxide, LaFeO₃, have been prepared by solid state reaction as well as sol-gel synthesis and nebulized spray pyrolysis. Structures, morphologies and magnetic susceptibility measurements of these powders have been examined. The powders prepared by all the three low-temperature routes contain nearly spherical particles with an average diameter of 40 nm. These samples show a lower Neel temperature than the powder prepared by solid state reaction besides showing much lower magnetic susceptibility at low temperatures. Dedicated to Professor C N R Rao on his 70th birthday     

CO2,O2,CF4液体微滴喷射靶激光等离子体光源光谱

基于软X射线辐射计量和极紫外投影光刻(EUVL)应用,研制了一台使用纳秒激光器的液体微滴喷射靶激光等离子体(LPP)极紫外光源。该光源由一个可连续控温的不锈钢电磁喷气阀门、YAG激光器和能同步控制喷气阀门和激光器的脉冲发生器组成。使用液氮作致冷剂,控温范围77～473 K。对于足够高的背景气压和低的阀门温度,当气体经过阀门脉冲式地喷入真空靶室内时,气体经过气-液相变碎裂成大量的液体微滴形成液体微滴喷射靶。首先,依据非相对论量子力学理论,使用原子光谱分析常用的Cowan程序,计算了O2,CO2和CF4等几种液体在1011～1012W.cm-2激光功率密度下可能相应产生的O4 ,O5 ,O6 ,O7 ,F5 ,F6 和F7 离子的电偶极辐射跃迁波长和跃迁概率。其次,在激光焦点功率密度为8×1011W.cm-2时,测量了CO2,O2,CF4液体微滴喷射靶在6～20 nm波段的光谱。理论计算结果与实验结果相比较,得出了所测量谱线的电偶极辐射跃迁波长和跃迁概率以及跃迁能级所应归属的组态和光谱项。     

水雾红外隐身的冷/热目标效应

人工水雾对抗红外成像制导导弹时,会因为蒸发对流强、辐射热流弱而使水雾形成冷目标;也可能因为辐射热流过强、散热弱而形成热目标。为详细揭示该现象,以Mie理论为基础,通过辐射传递方程和能量守恒方程的耦合计算,建立了水雾红外隐身产生冷目标或热目标效应的数学模型。应用蒙特卡洛法与本文算法作对比,验证了模型的正确性;将水雾视为吸收、发射、各向异性散射介质,考虑水雾自身辐射、多重散射和各种换热过程,比如辐射热流、两相流的热传导、热对流、紊流热扩散以及雾滴蒸发等,反映了水雾热遮蔽所产生的冷/热目标效应。     

基于数字粒子图像测速的水雾粒径测量算法及实验

针对利用传统数字粒子图像测速（DPIV）法测量水雾粒径时粒子影像拉长对测试结果的影响,提出了基于DPIV建立的改进图像法（IIM）。设计了水雾粒径测量试验系统,对细水雾进行实时测试,并对比了采用本文算法与直接等效法测试水雾粒径子半径的差异。结果表明：采用本文的IIM得到的测试结果更为准确。通过最小二乘法对粒径分布进行拟合,发现对数正态分布函数和威布尔函数都可以较好地描述粒径分布。     

Ultrasound-assisted microencapsulation of jackfruit extract in eco-friendly powder particles: characterization and antiproliferative activity

The aim of the article was to develop stable and safe eco-friendly microcapsules and evaluate their physicochemical properties and their efficiency to protect a jackfruit extract. Eco-friendly microcapsules were produced by ultrasound and spray drying using only three safe ingredients: sucrose ester (SE), miglyol and maltodextrin (DE = 10). Some physicochemical properties, particle morphology, FT-IR, differential scanning calorimetry and antiproliferative activity were determined for microcapsules loaded or not with the jackfuit extract. The results revealed that the encapsulation process by spray drying produced stable microcapsules, with adequate physicochemical and fluid properties for a powder product. The cell viability on the proliferation of M12.C3.F6 cell line was not affected by powder microcapsules without jackfruit extract, indicating that capsules are not toxic for these cells. However, microcapsules with jackfruit extract (100 μg/ml) were able to inhibit significantly the proliferation of M12.C3.F6 cells. These microcapsules can be used for the protection of different compounds sensitive to light, oxygen and/or heat and displaying a very low aqueous solubility.     

Formation of liquid cone jet dependent on rise time of driving voltage

This paper reports on transient dynamics of electrospray driven by high step voltage and its dependence on voltage rise time. Three rise times (50 ns, 1.8 μs, and 400 μs) were used to compare influence on liquid dynamics. It was found that, when the applied voltage exceeds a certain level, minute differences in voltage rise time significantly affect jet formation time. A rise time of 50 ns accelerates the jet ejection by about 20% compared with other rise times. These results indicate that optimization of rise time may enable drastic improvement of controllability of drop-on-demand electrospray.