Buechi, the Swiss supplier of laboratory equipment, says its Nano Spray Dryer B-90 revolutionises spray drying owing to its ability to generate particles down to the nanometre range from minimal sample quantities at high yields.
The company says spray drying is gaining more attention in drug development, pharmaceutical formulation and particle design as being a gentle, easy to control, continuous and scalable drying process to convert liquid formulations directly to dry powders.
The Nano Spray Dryer B-90 has a modular glass assembly and the visible spray process allows quick and gentle drying of a variety of applications in small scale, making it suitable for feasibility studies in r&d laboratories.
Current application trends focus on effective formulation of complex pharmaceuticals and nanomaterial substances for novel drug delivery systems, such as inhalable powder drugs. Typical applications are spray drying of aqueous or solvent based solutions, nanoemulsions, nanoparticle suspensions, structural transformations or nanoencapsulations.
The droplet generation is based on a piezoelectric-driven actuator, vibrating a thin, perforated membrane in a small spray cap. The membrane features an array of micron-sized holes. The actuator is driven at ultrasonic frequency, causing the membrane to vibrate, ejecting millions of precisely sized droplets every second with very narrow droplet distribution. Different spray caps with 4?m, 5.5?m and 7?m hole sizes are available to achieve a droplet size of 5-25?m.
Heater technology based on porous metal foam provides a laminar gas flow in the drying section and optimal energy input guarantees fast heat-up times up to 120°C for gentle drying of heat-sensitive materials.
The fine spray dried particles are separated by an electrostatic particle collector, which offers excellent particle recovery rates for nanoparticles of milligram sample amounts, the company says.
The integrated LCD display ensures easy process control and the PC software provides comprehensive data acquisition, storage and export capabilities.
The glass visibility from spray head to particle collection and the very short set-up times allow easy cleaning and the possibility for sterilisation.