The electrical charge carried by inhalation aerosols has been found to affect device performance and lung deposition of Dry Powder Inhalers (DPI), Metered Dose Inhalers (MDI) and nebulizers. The Dekati® ELPI™ (Electrical Low Pressure Impactor, Dekati Ltd.) has been widely used to determine the charge size distribution of inhalation aerosols. However, where the ELPI™ method gives the net charge of the particles the Dekati® Bipolar Charge Analyzer (Dekati® BOLAR™) is the first commercially available instrument capable of measuring bipolar electrical charge size distribution of inhalation aerosols.
The Dekati® BOLAR™ can separately detect positively and negatively charged particles in five different particle size fractions. After the charge measurement, negatively and positively charged particles can also be analyzed enabling measurement of charge to mass ratio in different particle size fractions. This completely new kind of information is needed in the development of inhalable medicine and delivery devices; the positive and negative charge levels carried by particles can vary significantly between different inhaler devices depending on the materials used in the device, the design of the device, carrier and drug particles used in the device and operating conditions. Until now, the measurement of size classified bipolar electrical charge levels has not been possible, which makes the Dekati® BOLAR™ a completely unique tool for inhaler device development.
See video of the BOLAR™ unit here.
More:
Yli–Ojanperä, J., Ukkonen, A., Järvinen, A., Layzell, S., Niemelä, V. & Keskinen, J. 2014. Bipolar Charge Analyzer (BOLAR): A new aerosol instrument for bipolar charge measurements. Journal of Aerosol Science, vol 77, pp. 16-30.
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