Study of adsorption processes of model drugs at supercritical conditions using partial least squares regression

The characterisation of adsorption or impregnation processes using conventional or supercritical fluid technologies becomes an increasing part of the research on drug formulations. The complexity of the relationships between these adsorption processes and the experimental variables potentially influencing them, however, makes these studies more problematic. In this paper, a chemometric approach based on nonlinear partial least squares (NL-PLS) modelling is applied to characterise the effect of the experimental variables on the supercritical impregnation process. Various adsorbent materials such as silica gel, zeolite and amberlite were investigated using the following model compounds as adsorbates: benzoic, salicylic and acetylsalicylic acids. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.