To prepare and characterize microcrystalline cellulose granules using water and isopropyl alcohol as granulating agents and determine its end-point by thermal and rheological tools.

Microcrystalline cellulose (MCC-102) is one of the most commonly used excipient in the pharmaceutical industry. For this research purpose, authors have developed a different technique to determine the end point for MCC-102 using water and isopropyl alcohol 70% (IPA) as granulating agent. Wet and dry granules obtained were characterized for their flow properties using the powder rheometer and thermal analysis. Powder rheometer was used to measure basic flowability energy (BFE), specific energy (SE), percentage compressibility, permeability and aeration. Thermal analysis includes effusivity and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) measurements. BFE and SE results showed water granules requires high energy as compared to IPA granules. Permeability and compressibility results suggest IPA forms more porous granules and have better compressibility as compared to water granules. Hardness data reveals interesting phenomena in which as the amount of water increases, hardness decreases and vice-versa for IPA. Optimal granules were obtained in the range of 45-55% w/w. DSC data supported the formation of optimal granules. Empirical measurements like angle of repose did not reveal any significant differences between powder flow among various granules. In this paper, with the help of thermal effusivity and powder rheology we were able to differentiate between various powder flows and determine the optimal range for granule formation.