186ak AC-Electric Field Drop-on-Demand Printing of Drug Dosage

Yueyang Shen, Shilan Motamedvaziri, and Boris Khusid. Chemical Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, University Heights, Newark, NJ 07102

Drop-based technique is used to deposit drug dosages onto an edible film. Unlike the common approach to utilize DC electric fields and metal nozzles, we use a nozzle made of an electrically insulating material and apply an AC electric field to form drops. Study of the field-driven drop formation was carried out over a broad range of the applied frequency and the applied peak-to-peak voltage. Experiments were conducted on polyethylene glycol (PEG)-based solutions. Presented results demonstrate the various drop formation regimes observed as a function of the field strength and frequency. We discuss the mechanism of the drop formation in an insulating nozzle caused by the application of an AC field.