Analysis of heat generation during the production of drug nanosuspensions in a wet stirred media mill

Abstract

Although heat is generated during the wet stirred media milling of drug suspensions, leading to notable temperature rise, a comprehensive analysis of heat generation does not exist. Hence, we investigated the impact of stirrer speed, bead loading, and bead size at three levels on the evolution of suspension temperature at the mill outlet during the milling of fenofibrate. The particle sizes and viscosities of the milled suspensions and power were measured. Our results suggest that stirrer speed had the most significant impact on the temperature increase, followed by bead loading and bead size. Both the time when the temperature reached 22 °C and the temperature at 5 min of milling were strongly correlated with the power. Assessing the impacts of the process parameters on the temperature rise, cycle time, power, and median particle size holistically, an optimal milling process was identified: 3000 rpm with 50% loading of 200 or 400 µm beads. A power number correlation was established to calculate power at any milling condition which determines the heat generation rate. Overall, this study indicated the importance of developing a good understanding of heat generation during nanomilling for development of a robust milling process especially for thermally labile drugs.

Keywords: Drug suspension; Heat generation; Nanoparticles; Process optimization; Temperature evolution; Wet stirred media milling.