Abstract
For dealing with poorly water-soluble drugs having large particles, we studied the effective utilization of sodium chloride（NaCl）. Ibuprofen, which was used as the model drug, was ground with NaCl by means of a planetary ball mill. The average particle size of the pulverized ibuprofen samples was reduced from 39.3 ± 0.7 μm to 1.2 ± 0.2 μm, while the span value was maintained at the low level of 2.7 ± 1.0. The crystal form of ibuprofen remained unchanged after grinding with NaCl, referring to the Powder X-Ray Diffraction（PXRD）results. Moreover, the dissolution rate of ibuprofen was enhanced after ball milling with NaCl, indicating that NaCl could act as an agglomeration inhibitor. This study demonstrated that NaCl offered a potential approach to future studies in pulverizing drugs that are huge in particle size and poorly soluble in water.
