Thermodynamics Research Center / ThermoML | Fluid Phase Equilibria

ABSTRACT

Solubility measurement of desired solid component(s) represents a primary and crucial step of feasibility study on production process of a nanoparticle drug through supercritical fluid (SCF) technology. Ketotifen fumarate (KTF) is an effective anti-histamine and anti-inflammatory drug with a wide spectrum of applications in treatment and prevention of a variety of mucosal and skin allergies. In this research, for the first time, solubility of KTF was determined experimentally in supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) at different temperatures in the range (308.2 to 338.2) K and different pressures in the range (120 to 300) bar. Obtained in mole fraction, KTF solubility was in the range of 0.211 x 10-4 to 10.766 x 10-4 . To predict solubility of the solid solute drug in supercritical fluid, experimental data modeling was successfully accomplished by using two different groups of models, i.e. six density based empirical models, namely Chrastil, Khansari, Bartle, Spark and Bian models, and two equations of state (EoS), namely Peng-Robinson (PR) and Perturbed-Chain Statistical Associating Fluid (PCP-SAFT). Results of analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated the Peng-Robinson model as the model of choice for predicting solubility of KTF in SC-CO2. Using correlation results, the heat of drug-CO2 solvation and that of drug vaporization were approximated as (223.77 and 0.09577) kJ/mol, respectively.