Characterization of supersaturated lidocaine/polyacrylate pressure sensitive adhesive systems: thermal analysis and FT-IR.

Supersaturated and crystallized lidocaine (LC)/pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA) systems have been studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and FT-IR with the objective of characterizing the thermodynamic states and compatibility of the two-component systems. Analysis of the phase behavior of LC/DT2287 systems indicates that LC and DT2287 are thermodynamically miscible within the composition range containing less than ∼20% w/w LC, beyond which LC may crystallize from the blends forming a separated crystalline phase. The composition dependence of the glass transition temperature (Tg) was used to characterize the physical and thermodynamic states of the supersaturated systems. The Fox, Gordon-Taylor, Kwei, Kovacs, and Brekner, Schneider and Cantow (BSC) equations were employed to conduct the analysis. It was found that the PSA in the supersaturated LC/PSA systems underwent significant entropic relaxation upon mixing. LC in the miscible systems is absorbed into and swells the polymer network of the PSA, thereby exhibiting reduced molecular mobility, while the PSA attains significant molecular conformation relaxation and entropy increase. It was also found that LC molecules extensively participate in molecular relaxation of the PSA throughout the composition range studied. The molecular mobility of LC is inhibited as the volume fraction of DT2287 increases, suggesting that the PSA molecular network reduces the molecular mobility of LC by closely involving LC molecules in its relaxation, and thereby may enhancing the physical stability of the systems. No strong intermolecular interactions between the two components were found based upon the results of Tg-composition analysis, and was confirmed by FT-IR studies. This indicates that the analysis based on the BSC equation provides more precise characterization of polymer systems than the Tg -composition analysis based on other equations cited. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc. and the American Pharmacists Association.