Novel spray drying technique to manufacture micron-scale carrier particles of nanoparticulate drug

• Main Author: Li, Selina Peishan.
• Other Authors: Kunn Hadinoto Ong
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Chemical engineering::Biotechnology
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/16668
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Spray drying technique is used to manufacture Large Hollow Nanoparticulate Aggregates (LHNPA) from colloidal silica nanoparticles. Factorial design experiments were built to investigate the effect of five parameters on the shape, size and degree of hollowness of spray-dried colloidal silica nanoparticles suspension and to determine the optimal conditions. These parameters include inlet temperature, solution feed rate, atomizing air flow rate, pH and concentration of the suspension. Design of Experiment (DOE) of chitosan-tripolyphosphate (TPP) nanoparticles is also carried out to determine the effect of concentrations of chitosan in acetic acid, TPP concentration, and the amount of levofloxacin (levo) on the size of chitosan-levo-TPP nanoparticles, determined using a zetasizer. Results from the DOE are analysed using Minitab software. For colloidal silica, the effect of concentration alone is found to be important in affecting both the degree of hollowness and particle size. It is also observed to have an effect on the importance of the other factors studied, which leads to the possibility of a threshold concentration. As for the chitosan-levo-TPP nanoparticles, the level of levo amount has to be kept high, while chitosan and TPP concentrations are kept low in order to produce small nanoparticles.