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The role of surface properties, influenced by particle processing, in particle-particle interactions (powder cohesion) is investigated in this study. Wetting behaviour of mefenamic acid was found to be anisotropic by sessile drop contact angle measurements on macroscopic (>1cm) single crystals, with variations in contact angle of water from 56.3° to 92.0°. This is attributed to variations in surface chemical functionality at specific facets, and confirmed using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Using a finite dilution inverse gas chromatography (FD-IGC) approach, the surface energy heterogeneity of powders was determined. The surface energy profile of different mefenamic acid crystal habits was directly related to the relative exposure of different crystal facets. Cohesion, determined by a uniaxial compression test, was also found to relate to surface energy of the powders. By employing a surface modification (silanisation) approach, the contribution from crystal shape from surface area and surface energy was decoupled. By "normalising" contribution from surface energy and surface area, needle shaped crystals were found to be ∼2.5× more cohesive compared to elongated plates or hexagonal cuboid shapes crystals.

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Particle bulk and surface properties are influenced by the powder processing routes. This study demonstrates the effect of milling temperatures on the particle surface properties, particularly surface energy and surface area, and ultimately on powder cohesion. An active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) of industrial relevance (brivanib alaninate, BA) was used to demonstrate the effect of two different, but most commonly used milling temperatures (cryogenic vs. ambient). The surface energy of powders milled at both cryogenic and room temperatures increased with increasing milling cycles. The increase in surface energy could be related to the generation of surface amorphous regions. Cohesion for both cryogenic and room temperature milled powders was measured and found to increase with increasing milling cycles. For cryogenic milling, BA had a surface area ∼ 5× higher than the one obtained at room temperature. This was due to the brittle nature of this compound at cryogenic temperature. By decoupling average contributions of surface area and surface energy on cohesion by salinization post-milling, the average contribution of surface energy on cohesion for powders milled at room temperature was 83% and 55% at cryogenic temperature.