The influence of particles of a minor component on the matrix strength of sodium chloride.

Abstract This paper deals with the matrix strength of sodium chloride particles in pure sodium chloride tablets and in tablets compressed from binary mixtures of sodium chloride with low concentrations of pregelatinised starch. Because this study concerns the strength of the sodium chloride matrix, the tablet strength is reflected as a function of the sodium chloride volume fraction in the tablet. Starch particles in the mixture tablets decrease the sodium chloride volume fraction–tensile strength relationship compared with that of pure sodium chloride tablets. To determine the contribution of the sodium chloride matrix to the tablet strength, the starch particles were removed from the mixture tablets by heat treatment. Determination of the strengths of these heat-treated tablets reveals that the sodium chloride matrix strength determines the tablet strength of mixture tablets containing a single matrix of sodium chloride particles. The decrease of the sodium chloride matrix density in the three different tablets (pure sodium chloride tablets, mixture tablets and heat-treated tablets) is reflected by an increase of the median pore size. The matrix in sodium chloride tablets shows a higher tensile strength to median pore size relation than the matrices in the mixture and heat-treated tablets. Based on calculations according to the theory of elastic–brittle fracture, it is suggested that the initial presence of starch particles during tablet compaction causes the pores in the matrices of the mixtures and heat-treated tablets to be relatively more flat and longer. These pores weaken the sodium chloride matrix in the mixture and heat-treated tablets to a larger extent than the shorter, more spherical pores formed during compaction of pure sodium chloride.