Production of organic particles in the micrometer/nanometer range can find applications in a wide range of areas, however for a number of materials it is not a straightforward task. In the present work pulsed laser ablation in liquid environment (PLAL) of meloxicam was studied aiming the production of near micrometer sized particles of this pharmaceutical ingredient. Targets pressed from crystalline meloxicam powder were placed in distilled water and irradiated with a focused beam of a frequency doubled (532 nm) nanosecond Nd:YAG laser at 4.2-9.4 J/cm 2 fluence. Morphological investigation showed that the produced suspension contained particles in the ∼100 nm to 10 µm size range, with 1.0-2.0 µm on average, which is about 10 times smaller than the size of the initial material. FTIR spectroscopic investigations demonstrated that the chemical composition was preserved, while XRD and calorimetric measurements indicated partial amorphization of meloxicam during the process. The overall results suggest that the particles are mostly produced by the fragmentation of the pressed target by the recoil forces of the ablating laser pulse. Long period sedimentation tests of the suspension combined with UV-Vis spectroscopic analysis showed that by the method of PLAL a greater fraction of the poorly water soluble meloxicam could be dispersed and dissolved in water in a pharmaceutically preferred formation than by simple dissolution of it.

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