Zeta potential sedimentation

The zeta potential is a measurable indication of the apparent particle charge in the dispersion medium. When its value is relatively high, the repulsive forces usually exceed the attractive forces. Accordingly, the particles are individually dispersed and are said to be deflocculated. Thus, each particle settles separately, and the rate of sedimentation is relatively small. The settling particles have plenty of time to pack tightly by falling over one another to form an impacted bed. The sedimentation volume of such a system is low, and the sediment is difficult to redisperse. The supernatant remains cloudy even when settling is apparent. 

Suspensions are generally evaluated with respect to their particle size, electrokinetic properties (zeta potential), and rheological characteristics. A detailed discussion on the methods/techniques and relevant instrumentation is given in Sec. VII. A number of evaluating methods done specifically with suspension dosage forms, such as sedimentation volume, redispersibility, and specific gravity measurements, will be treated in this section. 

Electrophoresis involves the movement of a charged particle through a liquid under the influence of an applied potential difference. A sample is placed in an electrophoresis cell, usually a horizontal tube of circular cross section, fitted with two electrodes. When a known potential is applied across the electrodes, the particles migrate to the oppositely charged electrode. The direct current voltage applied needs to be adjusted to obtain a particle velocity that is neither too fast nor too slow to allow for errors in measurement and Brownian motion, respectively. It is also important that the measurement is taken reasonably quickly in order to avoid sedimentation in the cell. Prior to each measurement, the apparatus should be calibrated with particles of known zeta potential, such as rabbit erythrocytes. 

JB Kayes. Pharmaceutical suspensions relation between zeta potential, sedimentation volume and suspension stability. J Pharm Pharmacol 29 199-204, 1977. 

If a liquid moves tangential to a charged surface, then so-called electrokinetic phenomena arise [101]. Electrokinetic phenomena can be divided into four categories Electrophoresis, electro-osmosis, streaming potential, and sedimentation potential [102], In all these phenomena the zeta potential plays a crucial role. The classic theory of electrokinetic effects was proposed by Smoluchowski2 [103],... 

Zeta potential was the first, experimentally available value characterizing edl. The potential of the solid particles in the electrolyte solutions may be determined on the basis of one of the four following phenomena microelectrophoresis, streaming potential, sedimentation potential and electroosmosis. The most popular of them and the best described theoretically and methodically is the electrophoresis. Other papers, concerning the electrophoretic mobility, stationary level determination and the theory of the charged particles transportation in the electric field are still published. 

In the limit a = b, the polyelectrolyte layer vanishes so that 4 c = 4 and (J)s = 0. In this case, Eq. (24.40) gives the following result for sedimentation potential for concentrated suspension of hard particles of radius a for low zeta potentials, as expected ... 

The original Acoustosizer used a single frequency whereas a later development has a range of 13 frequencies between 0.3 and 13 MHz. This allows the measurement of the dynamic mobility spectrum and the determination of the zeta potential and particle size. In order to invert the mobility spectrum into a size distribution a log-normal distribution of particle size is assumed. A comparison with photon correlation spectroscopy for determining particle size and laser Doppler anemometry for particle charge eonfirmed the results using ACS [266]. These and additional sedimentation measurements confirmed that changes in particle size and zeta potential due to dilution effects are likely to occur in aqueous and non-stabilized systems. 

Figure 11. Schematic representation of the electrophoretic mobility (A) measurement showing the major components. In an applied electric field, emulsion droplets move according to their surface charge. These charges can electrostatically stabilize an emulsion system by preventing the droplets from coming into contact and coalescing. The motion of the droplets is visually observed, and the electrophoretic mobilities of a number of particles are measured to determine zeta potential. The sedimentation potential (B) is also illustrated.

In the literature, the reported use of zeta potential measurement for non-aqueous suspensions is relatively infrequent because non-aqueous suspensions only represent a small percentage of all medicated suspensions. Su and others evaluated the flocculation-deflocculation behavior of cefazolin sodium in non-aqueous media and the effect of surfactants as measured by zeta potential along with sedimentation and porosity measurements. A significant difference in zeta potential was observed when the particles were dispersed in peanut oil and ethyl oleate. The addition of lecithin reduced the zeta potential of cefazolin sodium, resulting in a deflocculated state accompanied by a decrease in sedimentation volume. The effect of surfactant... 

The sedimentation velocity can be corrected for repulsive forces because of the surface charge of equal sign of the floes. The relation between the reduced sedimentation velocity of the particles and their zeta-potential is, after conversion to MKSA units (10, 11) ... 

All povidone types can be used as hydrophilic polymers to physically stabilize suspensions [39,119]. Their most important and primary function in all suspensions is as protective colloids, which hydrophilize the individual solid particles and sterically separate them. This increases the volume of any sediment and makes it easier to redisperse by shaking. Povidone also prevents the dissolved portion of the active substance from crystallizing out by forming soluble complexes with it [389] (see also Sections 2.2.7 and 2.4.5). The Zeta potential of many substances, e. g. iron oxide pigments, can also be reduced with povidone [421]. 

Particle size, shape, inter-particle forces, zeta potential, liquid surfactant phenomena, and liquid viscosity are important characteristics of a solid-liquid suspending system. Mechanism of flow through porous medium is fundamental to theories of sedimentation, filtration, centrifugation, and expression operations. Most solid-liquid materials are compacti-ble. Unique and strange behavior of pressure filtration of compactible materials has been identified. More attention should be paid for separation of those materials. 

Gallardo, V. et al.. An experimental investigation of the stability of ethylcellulose latex. Correlation between zeta potential and sedimentation, Eur. J. Pharm. Res., 26, 170, 2005. 

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