The grinding of medical tablets is generally discouraged due to stability issues and various other issues. However, in specific scenarios directed by doctors, pharmacists may engage in grinding medical tablets, particularly to cater to pediatric or dysphagia patient populations as extra-label use. In the case of ground film-coated tablets, many film fragments arise in ground powder. Hence, the determination of the grinding endpoint for film-coated tablets is more challenging compared to uncoated tablets. The reports about grinding efficiency are limited because of the assumption that film-coated tablets are taken as tablets. The purpose of this report is to clarify how pharmaceutical excipients, particularly cellulose derivatives, utilized in film coating influence the grinding efficiency of film-coated tablets. Preliminary findings from the grinding of ten medical commercial tablets suggest that a higher concentration of hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) correlated with increased difficulty in grinding film-coated tablets. Four film coating solutions with different HPMC-based components were used to coat model tablets prepared by the authors and their grindability was evaluated. The grinding of these film-coated tablets investigated those higher concentrations of HPMC resulted in increased tablet strength and larger residual film fragments. Moreover, the introduction of small quantities of additional plasticizer to the HPMC solution was found to decrease film strength, making the tablets more amenable to grind. It was shown that the components in the film coating solution affected the mechanical properties of the film and also the grinding characteristics of FC tablets.

Functionalizing biomass-based materials is of utmost importance considering to its profound effects on economy, environment, and society. Therefore, in this study, we focus on exploring the potential of a bio-based wood pulp material called 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl (TEMPO) oxidized cellulose nanofibers (CNF). To address the challenges associated with separating and recovering CNF from liquid media, as well as handling, our research team has developed a functionalized particulate CNF with superior performance and exceptional properties using the spray drying method. This includes assessing the feasibility of CNF-loaded particles on porous silica particles with different pore diameters, to enhance the CNFs’ capacity to adsorb proteins, increasing it from 1170 mg/g to 1540 mg/g. The incorporation of magnetic nanoparticles into the CNF also enables efficient external magnetic recovery from liquid mediums. Furthermore, employing various organic solvents enables the generation of CNF particles with a range of specific surface areas, spanning from 1.5 m²/g to 222 m²/g. The impact of ethanol concentration on the surface characteristics of the CNF particles was also assessed. This paper also provides a comprehensive discussion on CNF particles formation mechanism, specifically focusing on its behavior when exposed to various solvents. These results offer useful and instructive insights into the development of CNF-based microparticles to address the challenges associated with their application in several fields, including biomedicine and environmental sustainability.

In recent years, microplastics have become a global issue. Our research group is working on the development of spherical particles using cellulose acetate, which is safe and environmentally friendly, through a polymer thermal phase separation. The cellulose acetate particles produced by our group exhibit high surface smoothness, which results in a smooth texture when used as a cosmetic sensory modifier.

In the fabrication of functional materials through slurry, the rheological properties of slurry can be a control index of process and material quality. Rheological properties are expected to reflect microstructure composed of suspended particles in slurry. We have investigated the relationship between the rheological properties and the structure of slurry by use of numerical simulations, which solve the dynamics of suspended particles under shear flow. We present some results obtained by the numerical simulations.

Persistent homology has the potential to extract diverse information from data and discover physical laws and relationships hidden in the data. It has been used in powder engineering and is a valuable tool to support the description of the mechanical behavior of powders. Applied to the packing structure of powder compacts, quantitative evaluation of the three-dimensional structure is available, and the inhomogeneity of the structure can be quantified. A new empirical equation was proposed which can predict the relationship between the elastic modulus and the water saturation considering structural homogeneity, specific surface area, surface tension, and porosity as the main factors affecting the elastic modulus in the partially saturated state.