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Hardness and Density Distributions of Pharmaceutical Tablets

Measured by Terahertz Pulsed Imaging


ROBERT K. MAY,1 KE SU,1 LIANGHAO HAN,2 SHUNCONG ZHONG,3 JAMES A. ELLIOTT,2 LYNN F. GLADDEN,1 MIKE EVANS,4
YAOCHUN SHEN,3 J. AXEL ZEITLER1
1
Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3RA, UK
2
Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3QZ, UK
3
Department of Electrical Engineering and Electronics, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 3GJ, UK
4
TeraView Ltd., St John’s Innovation Park, Cambridge, CB4 0WS, UK

Received 21 February 2013; revised 4 April 2013; accepted 4 April 2013


Published online 22 April 2013 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI 10.1002/jps.23560

ABSTRACT: We present terahertz pulsed imaging (TPI) as a novel tool to quantify the hard-
ness and surface density distribution of pharmaceutical tablets. Good agreement between the
surface refractive index (SRI) measured by TPI and the crushing force measured from diametral
compression tests was found using a set of tablets that were compacted at various compression
forces. We also found a strong correlation between TPI results and tablet bulk density, and
how these relate to tablet hardness. Numerical simulations of tablet surface density distribu-
tion by finite element analysis exhibit excellent agreement with the TPI measured SRI maps.
These results show that TPI has an advantage over traditional diametral compression and
is more suitable for nondestructive hardness and density distribution monitoring and control
of pharmaceutical manufacturing processes. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. and the American
Pharmacists Association J Pharm Sci 102:2179–2186, 2013
Keywords: Mechanical properties; compaction; tableting; imaging methods; processing; tera-
hertz pulsed imaging (TPI); tablet hardness testing; density distribution; finite element analysis
(FEA); diametral compression test (DCT)

INTRODUCTION cause it provides a quantitative estimate of the inter-


nal bonding strength of the powder compact, which is
Recently, terahertz pulsed imaging (TPI) has at-
what gives the tablet sufficient mechanical strength
tracted increased attention due to a vast range of
to maintain its internal structure and geometry under
potential applications, especially in the field of phar-
applied external forces. Variations in tablet hardness
maceutical analysis such as tablet coating thick-
are hence known to correlate with differences in dis-
ness measurement,1–4 dissolution testing,5 and solid-
solution or mechanical response during any postcom-
state characterization (e.g., polymorphism,6,7 phase
pression operations such as tablet coating, handling,
transitions,8,9 and hydrate forms10 ). An important
packaging, storage, or shipping. In addition to these
parameter in solid dosage form processing that re-
factors, there are more immediate consequences dur-
quires precise detection and control is the hardness
ing processing: compaction of cylindrical tablets with
(tensile strength) of a compressed tablet. Hardness
an excessive compression force can result in tablet
testing of solid oral dosage forms is important be-
failure due to a phenomenon called capping, which
is caused by internal stress relaxation following the
Correspondence to: J. Axel Zeitler (Telephone: +44-1223- tablet compaction.11
334783; Fax: +44-1223-334796; E-mail: jaz22@cam.ac.uk)
Robert K. May’s present address is TeraView Ltd., St John’s Traditionally hardness has been determined us-
Innovation Park, Cambridge CB4 0WS, UK. ing mechanical methods12 such as diametral com-
Shuncong Zhong’s present address is School of Mechanical En- pression test (DCT)13 whereby an increasing force is
gineering and Automation, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou City, PR
China.
applied to opposite sides of a tablet until the tablet
Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Vol. 102, 2179–2186 (2013)
fractures. However, this testing method is destruc-
© 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. and the American Pharmacists Association tive in nature and provides only an approximation of

JOURNAL OF PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES, VOL. 102, NO. 7, JULY 2013 2179


2180 MAY ET AL.

crushing strength. Furthermore, all mechanical test- The effect of compression force on the refractive in-
ing methods are geometry dependent and cannot pro- dex of the solid oral dosage forms is quantified using
vide any information regarding the spatial distribu- TPI by Palermo et al.22 However, to the best of our
tion of tensile strength. To reduce process time and knowledge, no experimental study of the relationship
improve measurement accuracy, a number of alterna- between TPI results and tensile strength (crushing
tive techniques, such as, near infrared spectroscopy force) has been published. We focus here on tablet
(NIRS),14–16 Raman spectroscopy,17 and ultrasound surface refractive index (SRI) by TPI and correlation
testing18 have been developed to evaluate tablet hard- between the TPI results with traditional DCT and
ness. All commonly used NIRS techniques are based finite element analysis (FEA) simulation.
on multivariate spectral analysis, which is used to In this paper, the TPI method is used to evaluate
quantify the shift in spectral baseline due to a change the hardness of both flat-faced and biconvex tablets.
in the scattering losses as a result of a change in For this purpose, two sample sets with different ge-
porosity and hence density. The NIR light is reflected ometries are compressed at varying forces and the
from the surface of the tablets and harder tablets were SRI is measured using TPI. After the TPI measure-
shown to have a smoother surface and hence higher ment, the tablet hardness (crushing force) is deter-
reflectivity. The method requires careful calibration mined using a destructive mechanical method (DCT)
and the development and validation of such models and compared with SRI values. In addition, surface
are often time consuming and have their own limi- density distributions are calculated using the FEA
tations. Given that the method largely depends on a method, and the numerical results are compared with
change in the scattering losses with tablet hardness TPI measured SRI maps.
the NIRS method, as well as the Raman method, are
inherently sensitive to changes in particle size of the
formulation. In practice, this means that a new cali- MATERIALS AND METHODS
bration is required if any of the formulation ingredi- Materials
ents change between batches, if demixing occurs or,
in the case of granulated products, if the process con- For these experiments, two batches of pharmaceutical
ditions during the granulation step change. However, tablet cores with different geometries are prepared by
NIRS methods have been widely used in the com- direct compression on a rotary tablet press (double-
munity to quantify tablet hardness for almost two sided compression, XSpress R&D, Oystar-Manesty,
decades. Virtanen et al.17 have utilized Raman spec- Merseyside, UK) using lactose monohydrate powder
troscopy to measure the crushing forces of tablets. under eight different compression forces. Ten tablets
The surface roughness of tablets is related to the were sampled randomly for each compression force.
crushing force of tablets. As the Raman method is The first batch consists of tablets with flat upper and
sensitive to surface texture, it can be used only when lower surfaces and beveled edges (flat-faced, Fig. 1a).
the surfaces of the tablets are unaltered. Similar to The second batch of tablets has convex upper and
the NIRS method the Raman technique is typically lower surfaces (biconvex, Fig. 1b). The thickness of
a pure surface measurement with a sampling depth the tablet is inversely proportional to the compression
of no more than a few micrometers. However, it is force. Before testing commenced, the tablets were left
possible in principle to obtain some depth resolved for one week to allow for relaxation of the compressed
measurements or to increase the sampling depth by powders. In addition, each tablet was weighed and
changing the sampling optics to collimate the exci- its dimensions were measured with a micrometer to
tation beam to a larger spot rather than focusing it estimate the density of the tablets.
tightly18 or by performing time-resolved or spatially
TPI Measurements
offset measurements.19,20 All these approaches have
in common that the sampling volume is increased Terahertz pulsed imaging reflection measurements of
due to collecting photons that have diffused through sample tablets were acquired using a TPI Imaga 2000
a larger sample volume. However, it would be diffi- (TeraView Ltd., Cambridge, UK). A detailed descrip-
cult to use these techniques for imaging applications tion of the measurement technique was presented
as the photon diffusion process in an inhomogeneous earlier.23 The system has a useful spectral range of
granular medium would make it almost impossible to 60 GHz to 3 THz, corresponding to a wavelength range
achieve a defined spatial resolution. Simonaho et al.21 of 0.09–5 mm. A pair of high resistivity silicon lenses
have applied ultrasound transmission measurements in combination with silicon probe optics focus the THz
to evaluate the tensile strength of tablets. A good radiation to a diffraction-limited spot (7 mm in front
correlation between the speed of sound and tensile of the silicon optics) at which the solid tablet is placed
strength has been found. Terahertz-based measure- using a six-axis robotic arm. All terahertz generation
ment systems recently have been introduced in phar- and detection components together with the optics are
maceutical tablet hardness measurement research. assembled into a probe unit. The surface height map

JOURNAL OF PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES, VOL. 102, NO. 7, JULY 2013 DOI 10.1002/jps
DISTRIBUTIONS OF PHARMACEUTICAL TABLETS MEASURED BY TERAHERTZ PULSED IMAGING 2181

Figure 1. Side-view schematic of tablet geometry. (a) Flat-faced tablet; (b) biconvex tablet.
The tablet thickness varies according to applied compression force during powder compression.

of the tablet under test is first acquired from an opti- tures. The 10 randomly sampled biconvex tablets cor-
cal laser gauge. The whole waveform of the reflected respond to compaction experiments at eight different
THz pulse is acquired by point-to-point TPI measure- compression forces: 3.13, 6.16, 8.68, 8.87, 10.05, 16.54,
ments at a step size of 200 :m across the surface of 20.83, and 23.16 kN. The eight compression forces for
the tablet. The spatial distribution of the SRI maps flat-faced tablet are 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 16.5, 20, and
can be subsequently calculated from the peak inten- 24 kN.
sity of the acquired reflected terahertz waveform. The
SRI corresponds to the effective refractive index of the
tablet matrix at the surface of the tablet that origi- RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
nates from a depth of approximately 0 < d < 30 :m TPI Measured SRI of Both Flat-faced Tablets
relative to the tablet surface. and Biconvex Tablets
Terahertz pulsed imaging measurements of 10 ran-
Diametral Compression Test
domly sampled biconvex and flat-faced tablets com-
The tensile strength (crushing force) of the tablets is pacted at eight different compression forces were per-
measured using a traditional DCT,13 whereby an in- formed. Figure 2 shows two-dimensional (2-D) maps
creasing force is applied perpendicular to the tablet of SRI for eight different compression forces for both
axis to opposite sides of a tablet until the tablet frac- biconvex (Fig. 2a) and flat-faced geometry (Figs. 2b

Figure 2. SRI maps for a single tablet compacted under eight different compression forces.
(a) Biconvex tablets, (b) flat-faced tablets, (c) cropped flat-faced tablets (pixels of radius greater
than 3.5 mm, corresponding to the bevel, are masked out).

DOI 10.1002/jps JOURNAL OF PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES, VOL. 102, NO. 7, JULY 2013
2182 MAY ET AL.

Figure 3. Crushing force and averaged SRI as a function of compression force. (a) Biconvex
tablets, (b) flat-faced tablets. Error bars represent tablet-to-tablet standard deviations.

and 2c). It can be clearly seen that the higher the siderable variation in average SRI, as well as the
compression force, the higher the SRI. As shown in crushing force, of individual tablets at each compres-
Figure 2a, in the biconvex tablet geometry the SRI is sion force. It would be worth investigating in a future
not constant across the surface but appears to have study whether this variation in SRI is linked to the
a bimodal distribution with a lower value toward the mechanical properties of the tablets such as a ten-
tablet center. This variability may indicate an inho- dency for capping, for example, due to residual stress
mogeneity of the surface density and we will investi- within the tablet matrix. However, this variability
gate this effect further in a later section of this paper. seems to be less pronounced in the case of the flat-
For the flat-faced tablets, the measured SRI is much faced tablets. Here, the measured SRI does not vary
more uniform except for the pixels that correspond to appreciably across the tablet surface and hence a sin-
the edge bevel (Fig. 2b). High local curvature at the gle point measurement from any position on the tablet
beveled tablet edge causes scattering effects, which surface could be representative of the refractive index
make the data unreliable. To perform further analy- of the tablet as a whole. For biconvex tablets, it would
sis, SRI maps were therefore masked to exclude all require either a full 2-D mapping of the SRI distribu-
pixels with a radius of more than 3.5 mm from the tion (alternatively a line-scan over the entire face of
tablet center as shown in Figure 2c. the tablet could be performed to save time) or, a sin-
gle point measurement that would be repeated at the
same position on all such tablets. However, in either
SRI, Crushing Force Versus Compression Tests
case, TPI is clearly capable of nondestructively quan-
Figure 3 shows the average SRI (measured by TPI) tifying the surface refractive indices of all samples
and the crushing force (measured by DCT) as a func- studied, thus demonstrating the potential for TPI for
tion of compression force for both biconvex tablets in-line tablet hardness analysis during tablet manu-
(Fig. 3a) and flat-faced tablets (Fig. 3b). Clearly, for facture. Further work is required to investigate how
both geometries, the average SRI follows a similar intagliations would affect the density/hardness anal-
trend to the crushing force. Both SRI and crushing ysis. From previous work using TPI for coating anal-
force increase with compression force. There is a lin- ysis, it is well known that scattering losses lead to a
ear relationship between the crushing force, SRI and significant distortion in the reflected terahertz pulse
their compression force for the flat-faced tablets. How- and hence the waveforms close to sharp edges and
ever, for biconvex tablets, both crushing force and SRI any embossings or break lines are routinely removed
increase with compression force until a plateau is before quantitative coating analysis.24 For the appli-
reached-–in this case at approximately 23 kN. Given cation proposed in this study, the absolute amplitude
the tablet-to-tablet variation in SRI in this geome- of the surface reflection from the terahertz pulse is
try, it is hard to confidently decide whether the re- critical rather than the phase information of the coat-
lationship between SRI and crushing force is linear, ing/core interface, which is determined for the coating
exponential or indeed follows a different function al- thickness measurement. The density measurement is
together. Tablets compacted at forces exceeding this hence intrinsically more sensitive to scattering arti-
value are liable to failure by capping. Furthermore, facts and care needs to be taken to removing the af-
we observe that for the biconvex tablets, there is con- fected pixels. However, this could be achieved quite

JOURNAL OF PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES, VOL. 102, NO. 7, JULY 2013 DOI 10.1002/jps
DISTRIBUTIONS OF PHARMACEUTICAL TABLETS MEASURED BY TERAHERTZ PULSED IMAGING 2183

fit

Figure 4. (a) Combined measured crushing force as a function of bulk density for bi-convex
tablets and flat-faced tablet. (b) Average crushing force and SRI as functions of bulk density for
flat-faced tablets, (c) biconvex tablets. Error bars represent standard deviation.

easily by simple amplitude thresholding of the wave- or on density differences within the sample matrix
forms before analysis. below the surface. Although, in principle, it is possi-
ble to investigate density variations within the tablet
SRI, Crushing Force Versus Tablet Bulk Density
matrix using TPI, as the THz pulse penetrates deep
The volume of each tablet was estimated from the into the tablet, this is currently not practicable. We
measured dimensions and surface maps acquired us- have previously shown23 that TPI is sensitive to small
ing the optical laser gauge. Using the estimated tablet differences in matrix density, such as the interfaces
volume together with the tablet mass, the bulk den- between multilayered tablets, more than 3 mm into
sity of each tablet is then calculated. Figure 4a shows the tablet. However, we have not yet developed any
how crushing force relates to the actual tablet bulk robust signal processing and data analysis routines
density. In the case of biconvex tablets, the data points to extract quantitative measurements based on this
appear to be clustered into two separate groups. How- approach. A study by Henry et al.25 suggests that this
ever, when overlaid with data points from flat-faced might be possible in principle. Terahertz technology
tablets, we see that they fit into a continuum of crush- is a recent technique and more work into understand-
ing forces that varies smoothly with tablet density. ing the fundamental physics of scattering in porous
The two separate groups are not a genuine feature of media is required before such an application becomes
the biconvex tablets but merely because the range of quantitative. Likewise, the method would be unsuit-
compression force is quite coarsely distributed in the able for coated tablets as the measurement would re-
samples of this geometry. With the exception of a few flect the density of the coating rather than the density
outliers, the data points from the majority of tablets of the tablet matrix itself.5
lie on the same curve and follow the exponential fit, Ultrasound transmission measurements were re-
thus indicating that the tablet crushing force is inde- cently suggested as an alternative nondestructive
pendent of tablet shape, and hence a good indicator method to assess the mechanical properties of phar-
of the bulk strength of the lactose compact. Figure 4b maceutical tablets.21,26 Although the ultrasound ap-
shows the average crushing force and mean SRI as proach is conceptually very similar to the THz mea-
functions of average bulk density for flat-faced tablets surement, the main disadvantage of the ultrasound
and Figure 4c shows the relationship for the biconvex measurement (typically at a frequency of around
tablets. Clearly, for both geometries, the average SRI 10 MHz) is the requirement for a perfect contact be-
follows a similar trend to the crushing force as the tween the ultrasound probe and the tablet to couple
function of tablet bulk density. the ultrasound pulse into the tablet. This can exert
The SRI inherently represents a surface property significant load onto the tablet which can limit the
that does not depend on the thickness of the tablet applicability of this technique to in-die measurements

DOI 10.1002/jps JOURNAL OF PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES, VOL. 102, NO. 7, JULY 2013
2184 MAY ET AL.

or relatively hard tablets only. In contrast, at THz fre-


quencies the difference in refractive index between air
and tablet is sufficiently low and coupling from free
space is no problem, hence the THz technique is a non-
contact method. However, the ultrasound technique
has the advantage of even greater penetration depth
due to the much higher power of currently available
sensors.

Radial Distribution in Surface Tablet Density and


Refractive Index as Measured by TPI and Simulated
by FEA in Biconvex Tablets Figure 6. FEA simulated tablet density through cross-
section (xz-plane) of biconvex tablet under a 23 kN com-
As illustrated by the SRI maps shown in Figure 2a, pression force.
the spatial distribution of SRI across the surface of bi-
convex tablets is inhomogeneous. We will investigate
the relationship between SRI and surface density (as compression force of 23 kN. Tablet density is seen to
simulated by FEA) as a function of tablet radius in increase with the lateral distance from the tablet cen-
this section. ter. This spatial distribution can be explained by vari-
Figure 5 shows that SRI is radially symmetric and ations in tablet density due to local tablet geometry
increases nonlinearly as function of tablet radius. imposed by the shape of the tablet punch, as well as
To investigate the observed variations in SRI along the properties of the materials used in tablet com-
the tablet radius, numerical simulations were per- pression.
formed by FEA to model the density distribution of We also compare the trends in SRI and the simu-
powder after double-ended tablet compression. In the lated surface density as a function of tablet radius,
FEA, a Drucker-Prager Cap plastic model, widely which is shown in Figure 7. In general, the trends
used for pharmaceutical powders, is employed to in simulated surface density and measured SRI are
describe the compaction behavior of lactose, and the in close agreement. The most obvious deviation be-
density distributions of the tablet under different tween simulated surface density and measured SRI
compression forces were calculated. The model pa- is that the SRI increases more rapidly with increas-
rameters of lactose used here were directly extracted ing tablet radius. One reason for this difference may
from experimental stress–strain curves measured be due to the relatively small experimentally mea-
from a compaction simulator used in the pharma- sured value of 0.2 for the die wall coefficient of fric-
ceutical industry (Phoeneix Calibration & Services tion used in the FEAs. Another possible explanation
Ltd, Bobbington, UK).27,28 Figure 6 shows a cross- for the differences in simulated surface density and
sectional slice through the tablet density map at a measured refractive index is that the shape of the
tablet punch used in the powder compression simu-
lations was derived from the surface profile of indi-
vidual tablets measured by the laser gauge on the
TPI imaga 2000. However, the compacted material in

Figure 5. Radial analysis of measured TPI data showing Figure 7. Comparison of simulated tablet surface density
SRI of 10 sample tablets at each of the eight compression by FEA and measured tablet SRI by TPI as a function of
forces (3.13–23.16 kN). tablet radius.

JOURNAL OF PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES, VOL. 102, NO. 7, JULY 2013 DOI 10.1002/jps
DISTRIBUTIONS OF PHARMACEUTICAL TABLETS MEASURED BY TERAHERTZ PULSED IMAGING 2185

the biconvex tablets will undergo the relaxation af- spatially map out the density inhomogeneity over the
ter ejection from the die, which is nonuniform due to surface of the tablet is unique to the TPI method and
the density variation within the tablet; therefore, the it could be of interest during the optimization of the
shape of the compressed tablet may not be a true rep- formulation or the fine tuning of the tableting process.
resentation of the punch used in pressing the tablets.
The results support the findings by Palermo et al.,22
where a casual correlation between surface density CONCLUSIONS
and THz refractive index was proposed. In addition, Tablets with two geometries (flat-surface and bicon-
the good correlation between surface density and SRI vex) are compacted at various compression forces and
agrees well with the concept of an effective refractive TPI technique is used to determine the SRI spatial
index, which is strongly dependent on the porosity of distribution map. These SRI values are compared
the material.29–33 With an increase in porosity, the with the crushing force, which indicates the hardness
effective refractive index decreases due to the lower of the tablet. In this proof-of-principle study, we have
density of the material. This is conceptually quite dif- found that SRI increases with compaction force and
ferent to the NIRS and Raman methods that have has a strong correlation with the crushing force for
been used to quantify tablet hardness measurements. both geometries. We also found a strong correlation
In these methods, the surface hardness is correlated between the TPI results (SRI) and tablet bulk density
to a change in scattering losses: harder tablets have and how this relates to tablet hardness. Thus, TPI is a
a smoother surface and hence exhibit a higher reflec- potential tool for nondestructive evaluation of tablet
tivity as scattering from pores of length scales on the hardness. We have previously demonstrated3 that it
wavelength of the light used (typically 500–1100 nm) is possible to acquire THz measurements of moving
is reduced. In contrast, the pulses of THz radiation tablets under process conditions in less than 10 ms.
span wavelengths from 100 :m to 3 mm and hence Therefore, this technique might have potential for in-
the contrast mechanism in this technique is not pri- line hardness testing applications where the hardness
marily scattering but rather the change in density of of all, or at least a significant proportion of tablets,
the bulk matrix itself, albeit in this study still directly can be tested nondestructively after compaction in
below the surface rather than in the core of the tablet real time. Such a measurement sensor would not re-
matrix. Because of the increase in porosity the tablet place the need for diametral hardness testing but it
medium becomes an optically less dense medium as could complement it for process monitoring and PAT
air is exhibiting negligible absorption compared with applications. However, further work will need to sys-
the drug and excipient matrix. It is this ability to tematically evaluate the influence of the formulation,
probe the bulk microstructure of the tablet matrix, and the presence of API in particular, on the sensi-
which gives the THz technique particular sensitivity tivity of the method to tablet hardness. The surface
to the mechanical strength of the material because density of the biconvex tablets map along the tablet
the cohesive strength of the tablet is governed by the radius is explored through numerical simulation by
interparticulate bonding, which, in turn, is closely re- FEA and found to agree with the TPI measured SRI
lated to, though not exclusively dependent on, the maps, which explained the inhomogeneity of the SRI
resulting particle and pore sizes in the drug excipi- spatial distribution of the biconvex tablets.
ent matrix. However, it remains to be investigated in
future studies how much the sensitivity of the THz
technique is affected by lubricants and other formu- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
lation components, such as API, which might have a The authors would like to acknowledge Dipankar Dey
direct impact on the cohesive strength between parti- and Ian Warr at Oystar-Manesty for the preparation
cles beyond the resolution of this technique. of the tablets as well as the DCT. This work was con-
It is important to stress that we do not consider that ducted with financial support from the UK Technol-
the TPI technique as a suitable replacement method ogy Strategy Board (AB293H).
for diametral hardness testing. The physical proper-
ties that are tested for in both methods are different:
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JOURNAL OF PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES, VOL. 102, NO. 7, JULY 2013 DOI 10.1002/jps

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