Particle size and surface area distributions of pharmaceutical powders by microcomputerized mercury porosimetry

The Mayer-Stowe theory was applied to derive the particle size distribution of powders of pharmaceutical interest using mercury porosimetry. Particle size data obtained by this approach are fairly comparable with data derived by other, more popular, techniques such as the electrical sensing zone or the air jet sieving methods provided that the experimental value of the mercury-powder contact angle and the state of aggregation of the powder are carefully studied. Furthermore, by applying the Rootare-Prenzlow method a surface area distribution can also be derived from the same porosimetry data used to obtain the particle size distribution. All experiments were carried out with a microcomputerized mercury porosimeter, which allows storage of data during the analysis and a subsequent fast elaboration at the end of the run, with fully printed data on pore size, pore volume, surface area, and particle size of the powder sample.