The production of particles with well‑‑defined size and morphology is of large interest in pharmaceutical industries. The bioactive compound particle size reduction leads to an increase of its dissolution rate in the organism, increasing its bioavailability, allowing the administration of lower dosages, decreasing side effects, and decreasing treatment costs. Supercritical fluid technologies, mainly using carbon dioxide, are used to produce such particles. Several methods were developed to produce particles of hydrophilic or hydrophobic compounds. Furthermore, the active molecules can be co‑‑precipitated with polymer in order to produce controlled release systems. In this chapter the main supercritical technologies to produce particles (the rapid expansion of supercritical solution (RESS) with the supercritical fluid acting as a solvent, the anti‑‑solvent supercritical (SAS) to precipitate more polar drugs from organic solvent solutions, and particles from gas saturated solution (PGSS) with the supercritical fluid being used as a solute) are presented, showing the methods specificities and some applications. The influence of operational variables such as temperature, pressure, flow rate, concentrations, and capillary diameters in the particle size and morphology are discussed.
Authors
Bevilaqua, Gabriela
Rosa, Paulo de Tarso Vieira e
Keywords
Formação de partículas,
Tecnologias supercríticas,
Expansão rápida de soluções supercríticas,
Antisolvente supercrítico,
Solução gasosa saturada.,
Particle formation,
Supercritical technologies,
Rapid expansion of supercritical solution,
Supercritical antisolvent,
Gas saturated solution
