The present paper investigates the effects of particle size and the amount of sodium chloride on specific dissolving heat of silicone matrices. Specific dissolving temperature was measured on a calorimeter with a heat flow SETARAM C 80. Silicone matrices containing 15% and 30% of sodium chloride with particle sizes 20 mm, 450 mm and 755 mm were evaluated. With growing particle size from 20 mm to 755 mm the values of the specific dissolving heat were increased 2.3 times; with the increasing amount of sodium chloride in the silicone matrix from 15% to 30% the values of the specific dissolving heat were increased 1.8 times. A linear relationship was found between the values of the specific dissolving heat (SDT) and particle size of sodium chloride (PS). For systems containing 15 % of an osmotically active (surfactant) filler, the relation SDT = 6.3 PS + 7936.6 (mJ.g -1 ) with the correlation coefficient r = 0.9996 held true and for the systems containing 30% of the filler the relation STD = 24.4 PS + 8436.9 (mJ.g -1 ) with the correlation coefficient r = 0.9998 was found.

        Key words: calorimetry – silicone therapeutic systems – osmotically active fillers – sodium chloride