Experimental study and thermodynamic modeling of Esomeprazole (proton-pump inhibitor drug for stomach acid reduction) solubility in supercritical carbon dioxide

Production of micro- and nano-sized particles through supercritical fluid (SCF) technology needs substantial measurements of solubility data. In this work, for the first time, solubility of Esomeprazole (ESM) in supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) was determined at pressures and temperatures ranging within 12-27 MPa and 308.2-338.2 K, respectively. Under the applied conditions, mole fractions were obtained in the range of 1.11 x 10(-5) to 9.10 x 10(-4). For correlating the drug solubility, six semi-empirical models and two equations of state (EoSs), with different modeling plans, were utilized. Furthermore, sublimation pressure of the solute was calculated by two different approaches: a predictive model and data fitting. Results showed high accuracy of Soave-Redlich-Kwong EoS combined with Renon mixing rule using the second approach. The results were further employed to derive a criterion for application of cubic EoSs in SCF as well as a methodology for prediction of P-sub to 9.10 x 10(-4) (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.