Colegio de San Gabriel Arcangel

City of San Jose del Monte, Bulacan, Philippines

FULL NAME Echevarria Jonille S. SCORE

YEAR LEVEL BSP 2 DATE 10/31/2020

LEARNING ACTIVITY for UNIT No. 9

Micromeritics

Review Questions:

1. Discuss the concept of particle size as it applies to the pharmaceutical sciences.

The particle size distribution of active ingredients and excipients is an important physical

characteristic of the materials used to create pharmaceutical products

2. Discuss the common particle sizes of pharmaceutical preparations and their impact on
pharmaceutical processing/preparation.

Laser Diffraction This is the most popular particle size analysis technique used in the pharmaceutical
industry. This technology is fast, easy to use, flexible, and repeatable. The LA-960 Laser Diffraction
Particle Size Analyzer offers unique advantages including:

Dynamic range from 10 nanometers – 5,000 microns Automatic control of powder flow rate with the
PowderJet accessory leads to repeatable dry measurements Built-in USP <429> calculations Learn how
the LA-960 could be used in your pharmaceutical lab by downloading these applications notes. Wet
Method Development Dry method Development Utilizing USP <429>

3. Be familiar with the units for particle size, area, and volume and typical calculations.

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4. Describe how particles can be characterized and why these methods are important.
characterized by particles that are too small to be seen in the ordinary microscope, whereas the
particles of pharmaceutical emulsions and suspensions and the “fines” of powders fall in the range of
the optical microscope. Particles having the size of coarser powders, tablet granulations, and granular
salts fall within the sieve range
5. Discuss the methods for determining particle size.
Optical Microscopy It should be possible to use the ordinary microscope for particle-size measurement
in the range of 0.2 to about 100 µm. According to the microscopic method, an emulsion or suspension,
diluted or undiluted, is mounted on a slide or ruled cell and placed on a mechanical stage.

Sieving This method uses a series of standard sieves calibrated by the National Bureau of Standards.
Sieves are generally used for grading coarser particles; if extreme care is used, however, they can be
employed for screening material as fine as 44 µm (No. 325 sieve). Sieves produced by photoetching and
electroforming techniques are available with apertures from 90 µm to as low as 5 µm

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Sedimentation The application of ultracentrifugation to the determination of the molecular weight of

high polymers has already been discussed. The particle size in the subsieve range can be obtained by
gravity sedimentation as expressed in Stokes's law

6. Discuss the role and importance of particle shape and surface area.

Shape plays an important role in fine particles in many ways. Aside from a decrease

in particle size and an increase in particle porosity, the other major way of increasing the
specific surface area of a fine particle is by increasing the surface roughness.

7. Understand the methods for determining particle surface area.

Adsorption Method Particles with a large specific surface are good adsorbents for the adsorption of
gases and of solutes from solution. In determining the surface of the adsorbent, the volume in cubic
centimeters of gas adsorbed per gram of adsorbent can be plotted against the pressure of the gas at
constant temperature to give a type II isothermas shown in Figure 18-10.

Air Permeability Method The principal resistance to the flow of a fluid such as air through a plug of
compacted powder is the surface area of the powder. The greater is the surface area per gram of
powder, Sw, the greater is the resistance to flow. Hence, for a given pressure drop across the plug,
permeability is inversely proportional to specific surface; measurement of the former provides a means
of estimating this parameter.

8. State the two fundamental properties for any collection of particles.

The preceding sections of this chapter have been concerned mainly with size distribution and surface
areas of powders. These are the two fundamental properties of any collection of particles. There are, in
addition, numerous derived properties that are based on these fundamental properties. Those of
particular relevance to pharmacy are discussed in the remainder of this chapter. Very important
properties, those of particle dissolution and dissolution rate, are subjects of separate chapters.

9. Describe and give examples of what a derived property of a powder is and identify the
important derived properties
Porosity Suppose a powder, such as zinc oxide, is placed in a graduated cylinder and the total
volume is noted. The volume occupied is known as the bulk volume, Vb. If the powder is
nonporous, that is, has no internal pores or capillary spaces, the bulk volume of the powder
consists of the true volume of the solid particles plus the volume of the spaces between the
particles.

Packing Arrangements Powder beds of uniform-sized spheres can assume either of two ideal
packing arrangements: (a) closest or rhombohedral and (b)most open, loosest, or cubic packing.
The theoretical porosity of a powder consisting of uniform spheres in closest packing is 26% and
for loosest packing is 48%. The arrangements of spherical particles in closest and loosest packing
are shown in Figure 18-16.

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10. Define the following:

a. Sieves
a utensil consisting of a wire or plastic mesh held in a frame, used for straining solids from
liquids, for separating coarser from finer particles, or for reducing soft solids to a pulp.
b. Micromeritics
It is thus the study of the fundamental and derived properties of individual as well as a collection
of particles
c. Particle size
a notion introduced for comparing dimensions of solid particles (flecks),
liquid particles (droplets), or gaseous particles (bubbles).
d. Micron
A micron is another measurement of particle size. A micron is one-millionth of a meter or one
twenty-five thousandth of an inch.
e. Micrometer
sometimes known as a micrometer screw gauge, is a device incorporating a calibrated screw
widely used for accurate measurement of components in mechanical engineering and
machining as well as most mechanical trades, along with other metrological instruments such as
dial, vernier, and digital calipers
f. Surface area
of a solid object is a measure of the total area that the surface of the object occupies.
g. Porosity
or void fraction is a measure of the void spaces in a material, and is a fraction of the volume of
voids over the total volume, between 0 and 1, or as a percentage between 0% and 100%.
h. Density
The density, of a substance is its mass per unit volume. The symbol most often used for density
is ρ, although the Latin letter D can also be used. Mathematically, density is defined as mass
divided by volume: where ρ is the density, m is the mass, and V is the volume
i. Optical microscopy
also called the light microscope, uses a combination of light and lenses to magnify an
image. Optical microscopes are used in the viewing of small objects such as cells. This type
of microscope does not offer the highest magnification and so when viewing a cell has limited
structures.
j. Sedimentation
is the tendency for particles in suspension to settle out of the fluid in which they are entrained
and come to rest against a barrier. This is due to their motion through the fluid in response to
the forces acting on them: these forces can be due to gravity, centrifugal acceleration, or
electromagnetism.
k. Ferret diameter
 is a measure of an object size along a specified direction
l. Projected area diameter
is the diameter of a sphere having. the same projected area as the particle.
m. Martin diameter

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is the length of the area bisector of an irregular object in a specified measuring direction. It is
used to measure particle size in microscopy
n. Mesh number
(a US measurement standard) and its relationship to the size of the openings in the mesh and
thus the size of particles that can pass through these openings.
o. Pore size
is generally the distance between two opposite walls of the pore (diameter of cylindrical pores,
width of slip-shaped pores).
p. Bulk volume
The volume per unit mass of a dry material plus the volume of the air between its particles.
q. True volume
Volume excluding open and closed pores (implied by BSI). X. Void: Space between particles in
a bed 
r. Void volume
refers specifically to the volume of the liquid phase contained inside a column. The same term is
sometimes also used informally to refer to the volume of a cavity in the column/tubing or
fittings. Void volume is also known as dead volume.
s. True density
 volume is defined as the volume excluding closed and open pores. Hence, real density is the
mass of the coke particle divided by its volume excluding closed and open pores
t. Granule density
Defined as the ratio of the mas of the granular powder and granule volume.
u. Bulk density
also called apparent density or volumetric density, is a property of powders, granules, and other
"divided" solids, especially used in reference to mineral components, chemical substances,
ingredients, foodstuff, or any other masses of corpuscular or particulate matter
v. Bulkiness
A container of a sterile preparation whose contents are intended for use in
a pharmacy admixture program and are restricted to the preparation of admixtures for infusion
or, through a sterile transfer device, for the filling of empty sterile syringes. 
w. Angle of repose
or critical angle of repose, of a granular material is the steepest angle of descent or dip relative
to the horizontal plane to which a material can be piled without slumping. At this angle, the
material on the slope face is on the verge of sliding. The angle of repose can range from 0° to
90°
x. Tapped density
The tapped density is calculated as mass divided by the final volume of the powder. The
interparticulate interactions that influence the bulking properties of a powder are also the
interactions that interfere with powder flow

Identify the following:

1. Science and technology of small particles.

2. Particle size is what type of property:
3. Methods for Determining Particle Size: (3)

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4. The disadvantage of this method of determination of particle size is that the diameter
obtained is in 2D only.
5. The diameter length of the line that bisects the particle is the one being measure.
6. (TRUE OR FALSE) The Higher the Number of sieves, the small the particle size can pass
through.
7. (TRUE OR FALSE) ↓Mesh Number = ↑Particle Size.
8. Methods used in sedimentation rate measurement (3).
9. Apparatus used in the sedimentation rate determination
10. (TRUE OR FALSE) ↑ Sedimentation rate = ↓ Particle size.
11. Pipet Method follows what law.
12. (TRUE OR FALSE) The more asymmetric a particle,  surface area per unit volume.
13. Methods in determining surface area (2).
14. The ratio of void volume to the bulk volume.
15. The volume of spaces, difference of bulk over true volume.
16. Volume regardless of the spaces.
17. The total volume of the material.
18. Density that is exclusive of voids and intraparticle pores larger than molecular or atomic
dimensions in the crystal lattice.
19. The mass of substance over volume of particles and intraparticle spaces.
20. True Density can be measured by.
21. Granule Density is measured by displacement of.
22. Defined as mass of powder divided by the bulk volume.
23. (TRUE OR FALSE) Bulkiness =  particle size.
24. Methods in determination of bulk density (3).
25. Density of actual particle. TRUE DENSITY
26. Factors Affecting Flow Properties (3).
27. It is the maximum angle possible between the surface of a pile of powder and the
horizontal plane.
28. (TRUE OR FALSE) the rougher and more irregular the surface of the particles, the higher
will be the angle of repose.

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