Measurement and correlation solubility of cefixime trihydrate and oxymetholone in supercritical carbon dioxide (CO2)

The equilibrium solubilities of cefixime trihydrate and oxymetholone in supercritical carbon dioxide (CO₂) were measured using a “static method”. Cefixime trihydrate is a cephalosporin antibiotic drug and Oxymetholone is a 17alpha-alkylated anabolic-androgenic steroid drug. The experimental measurements for cefixime trihydrate were performed at temperatures of 308, 318 and 328 K as well as pressure range from 183 to 335 bar. The solubility of oxymetholone was determined at 308, 318 and 328 K and pressure range from 121 to 305 bar. The experimental solubility data (mole fraction) for cefixime trihydrate and oxymetholone was greater than 1.6 × 10⁻⁷ and 1.6 × 10⁻⁵ and less than 3.02 × 10⁻⁷ and 1.49 × 10⁻⁴, respectively. The solubilities for two drugs in CO₂ were correlated by using four semi-empirical models such as Bartle, Kumar and Johnstone (K–J), Mendez-Santiago and Teja (M–T) and Chrastil models. The results obtained from the semi-empirical models show that there is good agreement between the experimental data and the results of semi-empirical models. By using the correlation results, the heat of drug–CO₂ solvation and heat of drug vaporization for cefixime–CO₂ and oxymetholone–CO₂ systems may be approximately estimated. Also, the Peng–Robinson (PR) cubic equation of state (CEOS) along with the van der Waals combining rule was applied to correlate the drugs solubilities in supercritical CO₂. The average absolute deviation between the experimental data and the results of PR equation for cefixime trihydrate and oxymetholone was 11.92% and 11.74%, respectively.