EFFECT OF CENTRIFUGATION ON SAMPLE HOMOGENEITY

Centrifugation is a common method used in many industries to reduce the time for stability studies, as the acceleration field leads to a quicker destabilization of the system. However, correlation with real shelf life of a colloidal system can prove to be complex, as the stress applied to the sample is far from natural forces, which can be encountered in the normal “life” of a product. This paper presents some data proving the detrimental effects of centrifugation on the destabilization process, as important segregation between small and large particles is observed after centrifugation of the dispersion and not when the sample is left at rest.