Evaluation of the moisture sorption behaviour of several excipients by BET, GAB and microcalorimetric approaches

Moisture content of solid-state pharmaceutical products is one of the main factors that affect drug stability, therefore suitable sorption studies need to be performed to assure drug quality throughout their shelf life. The Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) and the Guggenheim-Anderson-de Boer (GAB) models are usually used for this purpose. Using gravimetrically obtained data, both methods were applied in the present work to evaluate the sorption characteristics of several excipients. Microcalorimetric analysis was also performed in order to evaluate the interaction between water and the substances. The results of these experiments show excellent agreement between data and the BET model up to 55% RH and the GAB model over the entire humidity range, confirmed by high values of the statistical determination coefficients. Furthermore, microcalorimetric measurements suggested that the hygroscopicity of solid materials could be estimated approximately using this approach.