Solubility of palbociclib in supercritical carbon dioxide from experimental measurement and Peng–Robinson equation of state

Abstract

Palbociclib is a poorly water-soluble medicine which acts against metastatic breast cancer cells. Among various techniques to improve the solubility of this medicine, applying supercritical technologies to produce micro- and nano-sized particles is a possible option. For this purpose, extraction of solubility data is required. In this research, the solubility of palbociclib in supercritical carbon dioxide (ScCO2) at different equilibrium conditions was measured at temperatures between 308 and 338 K and pressures within 12–27 MPa, for the first time. The minimum and maximum solubility data were found to be 8.1 × 10–7 (at 338 K and 12 MPa) and 2.03 × 10–5 (at 338 K and 27 MPa), respectively. Thereafter, two sets of models, including ten semi-empirical equations and three Peng–Robinson (PR) based integrated models were used to correlate the experimental solubility data. Bian’s model and PR equation of state using van der Waals mixing rules (PR + vdW) showed better accuracy among the examined semi-empirical and integrated models, respectively. Furthermore, the self-consistency of the obtained data was confirmed using two distinct semi-empirical models. At last, the total and vaporization enthalpies of palbociclib solubility in ScCO2 were calculated from correlation results of semi-empirical equations and estimated to be 40.41 and 52.67 kJ/mol, respectively.