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XIDE™ FP Silica Gel (Silicon Dioxide)
Created on 07.17
ZLXIDE™ FP Silica Gel (Silicon Dioxide)
Formulation design for nutritional supplements and vitamin products faces multiple complex challenges, with core pain points concentrated in the following dimensions:
1. Large Differences in Ingredient Physical Properties: Such products usually contain multiple active ingredients that vary significantly in particle size, flowability, compressibility, hygroscopicity and inter-ingredient interactions. Some active ingredients only exist as fine powders; mixing with granular active ingredients tends to cause uneven particle size distribution, eventually leading to non-uniform active ingredient distribution and large quality variations between tablets.
2. Obvious Batch-to-Batch Fluctuation of Raw Materials: The physical properties of plant-derived ingredients have obvious batch-to-batch differences, bringing great challenges to formulation stability and large-scale production.
3. Difficult Molding of Oily/Viscous Raw Materials: Oily or viscous raw materials are extremely hard to process into solid dosage forms. Especially when compounded with fine powder ingredients, they are prone to agglomeration, sticking to punches and other production problems.
4. Production and Quality Problems Caused by Hygroscopicity: Most plant extracts are highly hygroscopic, easily absorbing moisture from the environment to form viscous agglomerates that adhere to other powder ingredients and equipment surfaces. This not only impairs powder flowability but also accelerates ingredient degradation, and the severity is directly related to ambient relative humidity (RH) and the critical humidity threshold at which ingredients lose free-flowing properties.
5. Limited Excipient Addition Space: Active ingredients account for 70%-90% in conventional nutraceutical formulations, leaving only 10%-30% space for excipient addition. Under the limited excipient ratio, it is difficult to simultaneously achieve multiple formulation goals such as excellent powder flowability, optimal disintegration time, qualified tablet hardness and reduced friability.
ZLXIDE™ FP silica gel (silicon dioxide) is a highly porous micronized silica gel developed by Zhongqi (Shandong) Silicon Materials Co., Ltd. As a high-efficiency multifunctional excipient, it can meet multiple core needs of pharmaceutical and nutraceutical formulations, and targetedly solve the above industry pain points. Its core properties and application value are as follows:
The pore size distribution of ZLXIDE™ silicon dioxide is controlled by strict processes. The narrow and uniform pore size distribution brings significant advantages to formulation R&D: it not only achieves better precise moisture control, but also ensures uniform and stable interactions between silicon dioxide and adsorbates, with minimal batch-to-batch performance fluctuations, adapting to the stability requirements of large-scale production.
Pore size is the core factor determining the moisture absorption performance of silica gel. Small-pore silica gel can efficiently absorb moisture at low relative humidity, while large-pore silica gel exhibits extremely strong moisture absorption capacity at high relative humidity. With customized pore size design, the ZLXIDE™ FP series silica gel can adapt to the humidity management needs of different formulations and can absorb several times its own weight in moisture and oily components, making it a leading adsorptive excipient in the industry.
After adding ZLXIDE™ FP silica gel to the formulation, it can adsorb a large amount of ambient moisture and free moisture released from raw materials through its high-porosity structure, keeping active ingredients dry at all times. It fundamentally solves the problems of powder caking and wall adhesion, and significantly improves the free-flowing properties of powder mixtures.
Excellent flowability brings three core production values:
• Ensure uniform distribution of active ingredients in the mixture;
• Achieve high consistency of tablet weight and greatly reduce tablet weight variation;
• Reduce production downtime and significantly improve production efficiency.
In addition to improving flowability, ZLXIDE™ FP porous silica gel can continuously adsorb ambient moisture during finished product production and the entire storage cycle, effectively improving the stability of moisture-sensitive active ingredients such as natural products and vitamins, inhibiting active ingredient degradation, and significantly extending product shelf life.
ZLXIDE™ FP silica gel has the characteristic of high bulk density, achieving multiple formulation effects at an extremely low addition rate with minimal impact on the dosage specifications of the final preparation. It perfectly fits the excipient addition restrictions of formulations with high active ingredient proportion, and achieves optimal formulation performance without sacrificing active ingredient content.
To verify the practical application performance of ZLXIDE™ 244FP silica gel, we conducted a parallel comparison test with conventional precipitated silica and fumed silica at an optimized addition rate of 1% in a multivitamin formulation. Powder flowability was characterized by the angle of repose, and the mixed powder was compressed into tablets for comprehensive performance testing. The core results are as follows:
Powder flowability is the core indicator determining tablet weight uniformity and production processability. The angle of repose is commonly used in the industry to characterize flowability; the smaller the angle of repose, the better the powder flowability. Test results show that the tablet mixed powder with ZLXIDE™ 244FP silica gel and ZLSIL™ SM 660 silica gel has the smallest angle of repose, and its flowability is significantly better than that of precipitated silica and fumed silica. It enables uniform distribution of active ingredients, high consistency of tablet weight, and greatly shortens production time.
Compared with fumed silica and conventional precipitated silica, tablets added with ZLXIDE™ 244FP silica gel have better hardness performance, which can effectively prevent chipping, edge breakage and other problems during processing, packaging and transportation, and significantly reduce tablet friability to improve finished product qualification rate.
Tablet weight variation during tableting directly affects the active ingredient content per unit dose, which is a core indicator for formulation quality control. Test data shows that using ZLXIDE™ 244FP silica gel as a glidant can control the tablet weight standard deviation at 1.32, far lower than similar precipitated silica and fumed silica products, achieving industry-leading tablet weight uniformity control. Meanwhile, there is no dust pollution in the production process, reducing the risk of cross-contamination.
ZLXIDE™ and ZLSIL™ series silica gels from Zhongqi (Shandong) Silicon Materials Co., Ltd. are specially adapted to the formulation needs of powdered nutritional supplements. In bulk powder applications, the free-flowing property of powder is the core to ensuring production continuity, reducing downtime, and guaranteeing product quality and uniformity. As high-efficiency glidants, ZLXIDE™ and ZLSIL™ series silica gels have the following core functions:
1. Physically block particles to prevent powder compaction and caking;
2. Coat and smooth the edges of bulk powder particles to reduce inter-particle friction;
3. Preferentially adsorb excess moisture in the air to avoid moisture absorption of the main powder;
4. Efficiently adsorb moisture and oil released from bulk powder to maintain long-term stable flowability of powder.
The series has the core advantages of high purity and chemical inertness, and can realize efficient flowability control even for the most difficult powder supplement products, ensuring stable product quality.
• ZLXIDE™ 244FP Silica Gel: Focuses on high adsorption capacity and full-scenario flowability control, suitable for complex formulations such as multivitamins and plant extracts;
• ZLXIDE™ AL-1FP/63FP Silica Gel: Efficient moisture absorption in low-humidity environments, suitable for drying and stable protection of moisture-sensitive ingredients;
• ZLXIDE™ 72FP Silica Gel and G156F Silica Gel: Specially designed for glidant applications with high cost-performance ratio, suitable for flowability improvement of conventional and complex pharmaceutical preparations; low dust, low cross-contamination risk, small size for easy operation and storage.
• Significantly improve product uniformity during mixing and reduce batch-to-batch differences;
• Achieve excellent effects at an extremely low addition rate with lower overall formulation cost;
• High loading capacity, adapting to the immobilization needs of high-oil and high-viscosity active ingredients;
• Strong moisture resistance, protecting active ingredients from ambient moisture;
• Reduce dust generation in production, improve production environment and lower cross-contamination risk;
• Greatly reduce tablet weight variation and friability, improve tablet hardness and finished product yield;
• Significantly improve production efficiency, enabling direct compression process to replace granulation process and shorten production process.
ZLXIDE™ FP series silica gel products are produced and certified in strict accordance with the latest test requirements for silicon dioxide in USP-NF (United States Pharmacopeia-National Formulary), hydrated silica in JPE (Japanese Pharmacopoeia), colloidal hydrated and dental silica gel in EP (European Pharmacopoeia), and China National Standard GB25576-2010 Class III.
All FP series products comply with major global food additive standards, including the Food Chemicals Codex (FCC), E551 specified in EU Directive No. 231/2012, Clause D326 in Japanese Specifications and Standards for Food Additives, and JECFA (Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives) requirements for amorphous silicon dioxide. They are globally applicable and meet the compliance declaration needs of domestic and international pharmaceutical and nutraceutical enterprises.
Zhongqi (Shandong) Silicon Materials Co., Ltd. Specialized in R&D, production and sales of high-end food & pharmaceutical excipient grade silica. Core brands: ZLSIL™, ZLXIDE™, ZLCSIL™. Products meet global food-grade standards, providing compliant high-performance formulation solutions for global food & pharma enterprises.
Full-process technical support & customized services available from our headquarters and production base.
Contact: Tel +86 53188737397 | Email Levin@silicaplant.com
Technical docs & application support available on request.
All information herein and published content is for reference only, with no warranty of accuracy or completeness. No warranty is given for product use results. We accept no liability for improper product use or information reliance. We reserve the right to adjust product prices & specifications without notice. For infringement issues, contact us for removal.
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