Lipid nanocapsule size analysis by hydrodynamic chromatography and photon correlation spectroscopy

Area of Science:

• Nanotechnology
• Materials Science
• Pharmaceutical Sciences

Background:

• Accurate particle size determination is crucial for nanoparticulate drug delivery systems.
• Dynamic light scattering (DLS) and photon correlation spectroscopy (PCS) are common techniques.
• Alternative methods like hydrodynamic chromatography (HDC) are being explored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To characterize and validate a hydrodynamic chromatography (HDC) method for nanosized carriers.
• To compare HDC with established techniques like PCS and atomic force microscopy (AFM).
• To assess HDC's capability in analyzing complex nanoparticulate samples.

Main Methods:

• Characterization of lipid nanocapsules (25-100 nm) using HDC.
• Comparison of HDC results with PCS and AFM measurements.
• Analysis of simple, complex, and mixed-batch samples.

Main Results:

• AFM results were inconsistent due to particle shape loss during drying.
• HDC and PCS provided comparable results for simple size determination.
• HDC detected micelles, a byproduct, which were undetectable by PCS after dilution.
• HDC effectively characterized mixed samples of varying average sizes.

Conclusions:

• HDC is a reliable and excellent tool for determining the size and size distribution of lipid nanocapsules.
• HDC offers advantages over PCS in detecting sample byproducts.
• HDC provides accurate characterization of complex and mixed nanoparticulate systems.