(190m) Micronization of Arbutin Microparticles by Using the SAS Process

In this work, micro-sized arbutin particles, which is well known to be an effective material for skin lightening agent, were prepared by means of the supercritical anti-solvent(SAS) process with CO₂. Ethanol and supercritical CO₂ were used as solvent and anti-solvent, respectively. In this effort, phase behavior of the binary system of CO₂/ethanol and ternary system of CO₂/ethanol/arbutin was measured by using a high-pressure phase equilibrium apparatus equipped with a variable-volume view cell. According to the phase behavior experiment, the feasible operation condition for the particle formation experiment was determinated as follows; the ranges of temperature, pressure, solute concentration and injection velocity of the solution are, in turn, 308.15~333.15K, 9~13MPa, 0.5~1.5wt% and 2~12ml/min. In the micronization of arbutin microparticles process, effects of the operating variables on the size and shape of the resulting particles were observed. Depending on the operating conditions, arbutin particles were produced in aciculate or spherical shapes. in summary, the size of the particle increases with the pressure and adopted spherically shaped particle was formed at higher temperature and solute concentration.