HPMC capsules are made by a dipping process and a surface lubricant for the mould pins is an essential processing aid for removing dried capsules shells. For the purpose of this study, the level was determined by quantifying methyloleate (MO) a component found in the lubricant but not in the hypromellose capsules. Here we investigated the influence of the lubricant, low (10.81 μg/capsule=60 mg/kg MO), medium (15.97 μg/capsule=90 mg/kg MO) and high (23.23 μg/capsule=127 mg/kg MO) content on powder (binary mixture of salbutamol: lactose, 1:50 w/w) aerosolization properties was investigated. Results indicated significantly lower emitted dose from capsules with 60 mg/kg MO. Furthermore, the 90 and 127 mg/kg MO level of lubricant capsules produced almost double the Fine Particle Dose & Fine Particle Fraction compared with the low level of lubricant. The data indicates that lubricant level within capsules has an influence on deposition profiles and amount of drug remaining in capsule and inhaler device after actuation. It is suggested lubricant levels greater than 60 mg/kg MO per capsule are required to minimise powder retention within capsules and maximise deposition profiles. AFM (atomic force microscopy) data suggest that internal surface roughness may be related with this phenomena.

Shape memory alloys exhibit superelasticity when they are deformed in a temperature range where the thermoelastic martensite forms on application of a strain. The martensite persists upon removal of the applied strain, and the alloy recovers the original shape on heating over the reverse-transformation temperature after removing the strain. The ␤-phase CuZnAl alloys have ␤-type superlattice in the parent case, and M9R or M18R martensites occur on quenching the alloys from the homogenization temperature. The basal plane of martensite is exposed to hexagonal distortion with martensitic transformation as well as the monoclinic distortion in the crystal structure, and splittings are observed in some selected diffraction-peak pairs due to the differences in atom sizes in lattice points. These pairs have a great importance as ordering criteria and satisfy a special relation between Miller indices. The present text reports the variation of the differences in interplane spacings (⌬d ) between some selected planes upon the further aging at room temperature at which alloys are fully martensitic. The decrease of ⌬d during the aging implies that the monoclinic distortion decreases. The mass increases are caused by the oxidation upon heating the alloys at high temperatures close to the betatizing temperature at free atmosphere.

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