Does Magnesium Stearate influence the electrical charge of lactose powder?
GranuTools was present in 2 sessions at the #PBPWorldMeeting. Granutools highlighted the dramatic influence of electrostatic charges in pharmaceutical processes. The GranuCharge, developed by GranuTools, can help the industry to measure the triboelectric properties of powders and to investigate the potential use of additives to reduce/control the tribocharging in industrial processes. See the first poster about the importance of investigating the influence of the processing conditions on the rheology and flow properties of powders here.
In Pharmaceutical processes, the powder flow properties are connected with the solid dosage. These properties are investigated by various methods such as, angle of repose (dynamic and static), packing dynamics, electrostatic charge etc. These characteristics are related either to the grain properties (morphology, chemical composition etc.) or bulk behaviour of powder (flowability, electrostatic charge etc.).
In this research, the influence of magnesium stearate (MgSt) concentration, as an additive, is investigated on the flowability of lactose powder. The flowability is measured using the electrostatic charge parameter. It is found that, with addition of only 3% of MgSt, the electrostatic charge (measured by GranuCharge) can be limit up to 23% of (77% reduction in charge) virgin lactose powder flow in contact with Stainless-Steel 316L pipes.
Materials: InhaLac 400 (Provided by Meggle Germany)
Download the full poster as a PDF here
Article information: Naveen Mani Tripathi, Filip Francqui, Geoffroy Lumay. GranuTools, Rue Jean Lambert Defrêne 107, 4340 Awans, Belgium. University of Liège, Allée du 6 août, 4000 Liège, Belgium.