An assessment of powder pycnometry as a means of determining granule porosity

A powder pycnometry method, using a commercially available instrument (GeoPyc® with DryFlo® displacement media), was evaluated as a means of measuring the envelope density of hydroxyapatite (HA) granules in the size range of 75-8000 µm. The aims of this study were to (1) investigate the reproducibility of the DryFlo® powder particle size and consolidation properties, (2) determine the number of preparation cycles required before test measurements should be taken, (3) compare the powder pycnometry method to the reference mercury porosimetry method and (4) investigate the effect of granule size on envelope density measurement. DryFlo® was shown to have a reproducible particle size when sampled at multiple locations across three separate containers. A minimum of 1 preparation cycle should be used to ensure consistent packing of the DryFlo® and HA granules. DryFlo® density was found to be insensitive to consolidation forces in the range of 10-100 N. The powder pycnometry method could be linearly calibrated against the reference mercury porosimetry method when considering polydisperse HA granule samples. However, when analyzing narrow particle size fractions limitations in the powder pycnometry method were noted resulting in a reduced particle size range of 1850-4050 µm that could be linearly calibrated against the mercury porosimetry method.