The decrease in particle size may offer new properties to drugs. In this study, we investigated the size reduction influence of the acetaminophen (C(8)H(9)O(2)N) particles by mechanical activation using a dry ball mill. The activated samples with the average size of 1 microm were then investigated in different time periods with the infrared (IR), inductively coupled plasma (ICP), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) methods. The results of the IR and XRD images showed no change in the drug structure after the mechanical activation of all samples. With the peak height at full width at half maximum from XRD and the Scherrer equation, the size of the activated crystallite samples illustrated that the AFM images were in sound agreement with the Scherrer equation. According to the peaks of the AFM images, the average size of the particles in 30 hours of activation was 24 nm with a normal particle distribution. The ICP analysis demonstrated the presence of tungsten carbide particle impurities after activation from the powder sample impacting with the ball and jar. The greatest reduction in size was after milling for 30 hours.
Keywords: acetaminophen; ball mill; mechanical activation; nanoparticles; structure investigation.