A novel electrostatic dry powder coating process for pharmaceutical dosage forms: Immediate release coatings for tablets

Mingxi Qiao, Liqiang Zhang, Yingliang Ma, Jesse Zhu, Kwok Chow

Research output: Journal PublicationArticlepeer-review

41 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

An electrostatic dry powder coating process for pharmaceutical solid dosage forms was developed for the first time by electrostatic dry powder coating in a pan coater system. Two immediate release coating compositions with Opadry® AMB and Eudragit® EPO were successfully applied using this process. A liquid plasticizer was sprayed onto the surface of the tablet cores to increase the conductivity of tablet cores to enhance particle deposition, electrical resistivity reduced from greater than 1×1013Ωm to less than 1×109Ωm, and to lower the glass transition temperature (Tg) of the coating polymer for film forming in the pan coater. The application of liquid plasticizer was followed by spraying charged coating particles using an electrostatic charging gun to enhance the uniform deposition on tablet surface. The coating particles were coalesced into a thin film by curing at an acceptable processing temperature as formation was confirmed by SEM micrographs. The results also show that the optimized dry powder coating process produces tablets with smooth surface, good coating uniformity and release profile that are comparable to that of the tablet cores. The data also suggest that this novel electrostatic dry powder coating technique is an alternative to aqueous- or solvent-based coating process for pharmaceutical products.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)304-310
Number of pages7
JournalEuropean Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics
Volume76
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Oct 2010
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Electrostatic dry powder coating
  • Eudragit® EPO
  • Immediate release
  • Opadry® AMB

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biotechnology
  • Pharmaceutical Science

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'A novel electrostatic dry powder coating process for pharmaceutical dosage forms: Immediate release coatings for tablets'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this