ABSTRACT
Supercritical fluid (SCF) technology has shown to be a viable option with relevant advantages for the production of particulate systems. Alternatively to conventional methods, single-step and solvent-free SCF techniques have been optimized to process materials under mild operating conditions. Namely, particle formation through the particles from gas-saturated solutions (PGSS®) technique has been widely explored for the production of particles with application in numerous fields, like pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and food industries. Moreover, the development of hybrid and structured particles with singular features has gained particular interest in the last decade. For the pharmaceutical industry, hybrid formulations are
considered an attractive alternative to polymer-based and/or lipidbased delivery systems alone, which still present limitations related with inefficient pharmacokinetic, bioavailability, or cellular uptake of active compounds. In this chapter the preparation of polymerpolymer, polymer-lipid, and lipid-lipid hybrid delivery systems, through the use of the PGSS process is reviewed. The analytical tools needed for their characterization are briefly presented.
