The study of directly compressible acetaminophen composition with fluidized-bed granulation

The effect of water and surfactants on the results of acetaminophen granulation in a fluidized-bed system was examined in this study. It showed that using enough amount of water was able to agglomerate acetaminophen powder into flowable granules. But tablets manufactured with such granules were not hard enough. The use of surfactants, sodium lauryl sulfate and pluronic F-68, had no significant effect on the size and distribution of particles at three concentrations (1, 3, and 5%) studied. Also, the dissolution of acetaminophen from tablets was not improved by the surfactants. However, using 5% of PVP as binder was able not only to obtain granules with well flowability, but also to increase the hardness of tablets to approximately 6 kg. An optimal acetaminophen formulation for direct compression should contain 5% PVP and a desired amount of disintegrant.