Water Adsorption Kinetics and Contact Angles of Pharmaceutical Powders

Water sorption kinetics and water contact angles have been characterized for a range of pharmaceutical powders: ambroxol hydrochloride, griseofulvin, N,n-octyl-D-gluconamide, paracetamol, sulfathiazole, and theophylline. The uptake of water by powder samples at saturated vapor pressure was modeled using a pseudo first-order kinetic relationship. Parameters from this model have been correlated with the concentration and reactivity of the active surface sites of the pharmaceutical powders and their contact angles. The study has shown that analysis of water adsorption kinetics can be a powerful technique for characterizing the surface chemistry and wettability of pharmaceutical powders, and is particularly sensitive to their surface modification through excipient adsorption: ethyl(hydroxyethyl)cellulose treatment of griseofulvin and butyryl chloride treatment of sulfathiazole are reported as case studies.