Tensile Strength Variation of Binary Tablets Produced by Planetary Ball Milling

Planetary ball mill was used to decrease and control the particle size of excipients. The effects of the weight of sample and the revolution number of mill, and grinding time on the particle size of the ground sample were analyzed by response surface methodology. The optimum conditions for the milling of microcrystalline cellulose were 38.82 g of the weight of sample and 259 rpm of the revolution number of mill, and 45 minutes of grinding time. The predicted value of the particle size at the these conditions was $19.02{\mu}m$, of which the experimental value at the similar conditions was $18.68{\mu}m$. The tensile strength of tablets of single-component powders, such as microcrystalline cellulose, hydroxypropylmethyl cellulose and starch, binary mixtures and ground binary mixtures of these powder were measured at various relative densities. It was found that the logarithm of the tensile strength of the tablets was proportional to the relative density. A simple model, based upon Ryshkewitch-Duckworth equation that was originally proposed for porous materials, has been developed in order to predict the relationship between the tensile strength and relative density of ground binary tablets based on the properties of the constituent single-component powders. The validity of the model has been verified with experimental results for ground binary mixtures. It has demonstrated that this model can well predict the tensile strength of ground binary mixtures based upon the properties of single-component powders, such as true density, and the compositions. When the tensile strength of the mixture of microcrystalline cellulose hydroxypropylmethyl cellulose (90:10) and the ground mixture of them were compared, the tensile strength of the ground mixture decreased widely from 45.3 to 5.6% compared to the mixture in case the relative density of tablets was in the range of $0.7{\sim}0.9$. When the tensile strength of the mixture of microcrystalline cellulose starch (80:20) and the ground mixture of them were compared, the tensile strength of the ground mixture decreased widely from 31.0 to 11.6% compared to the mixture in case the relative density of tablets was in the range of $0.7{\sim}0.9$.

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