Aerosol flow reactor method for synthesis of drug nanoparticles

Abstract An aerosol flow reactor method, a one-step continuous process to produce nanometer-sized drug particles with unimodal size distribution, was developed. This method involves first dissolving the drug material in question into a suitable solvent, which is then followed by atomising the solution as fine droplets into carrier gas. A heated laminar flow reactor tube is used to evaporate the solvent, and solid drug nanoparticles are formed. In this study, the effect of drying temperature on the particle size and morphology was examined. A glucocorticosteroid used for asthma therapy, beclomethasone dipropionate, was selected as an experimental model drug. The geometric number mean particle diameter increases significantly with increasing reactor temperatures due to formation of hollow nanoparticles. Above 160 °C, however, further increase in temperature results in decreasing particle size. The produced nanoparticles are spherical and show smooth surfaces at all studied experimental conditions.