Streaming potential and protein transmission ultrafiltration of single proteins and proteins in mixture: β-lactoglobulin and lysozyme

Universal Intraductal Surface Antifouling Coating Based on an Amphiphilic Copolymer

Surface modification on the inner wall of medical or industrial polymeric catheters with a high length/diameter ratio is highly desired. Herein, a universal and facile method based on an amphiphilic copolymer was developed to immobilize an intraductal surface antifouling coating for a variety of polymeric catheters. A fouling-repelled thin layer was formed by swelling-driven adsorption via directly perfusing an amphiphilic copolymer [polyvinylpyrrolidone-polydimethylsiloxane-polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP-PDMS-PVP)] solution into catheters. In this copolymer, hydrophobic PDMS was embedded into a shrinking cross-linked network of catheters; also, PVP segments migrated to the surface under driving water to form a hydrophilic antifouling coating. Moreover, because of the coordination between I₂ and pyrrolidone of PVP, the copolymer-modified intraductal surface was then infused with aqueous I₂ to form the PVP-I₂ complex, endowing this coating with bactericidal activity. Notably, diverse catheters with arbitrary shapes (circular, rectangular, triangular, and hexagonal) and different components (silicone, polyurethane, and polyethylene) were also verified to work using this interfacial interpenetration strategy. The findings in this work provide a new avenue toward facile and universal fabrication of intraductal surface antifouling catheters, creating a superior option for decreasing the consumable costs in industrial production and alleviating the pain of replacing catheters for patients.

Antifouling membranes for sustainable water purification: strategies and mechanisms

One of the greatest challenges to the sustainability of modern society is an inadequate supply of clean water. Due to its energy-saving and cost-effective features, membrane technology has become an indispensable platform technology for water purification, including seawater and brackish water desalination as well as municipal or industrial wastewater treatment. However, membrane fouling, which arises from the nonspecific interaction between membrane surface and foulants, significantly impedes the efficient application of membrane technology. Preparing antifouling membranes is a fundamental strategy to deal with pervasive fouling problems from a variety of foulants. In recent years, major advancements have been made in membrane preparation techniques and in elucidating the antifouling mechanisms of membrane processes, including ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, reverse osmosis and forward osmosis. This review will first introduce the major foulants and the principal mechanisms of membrane fouling, and then highlight the development, current status and future prospects of antifouling membranes, including antifouling strategies, preparation techniques and practical applications. In particular, the strategies and mechanisms for antifouling membranes, including passive fouling resistance and fouling release, active off-surface and on-surface strategies, will be proposed and discussed extensively.

Self-cleaning Metal Organic Framework (MOF) based ultra filtration membranes--a solution to bio-fouling in membrane separation processes

Bio-fouling is a serious problem in many membrane-based separation processes for water and wastewater treatment. Current state of the art methods to overcome this are to modify the membranes with either hydrophilic additives or with an antibacterial compound. In this study, we propose and practise a novel concept to prevent bio-fouling by developing a killing and self-cleaning membrane surface incorporating antibacterial silver nanoparticles and highly hydrophilic negatively charged carboxylic and amine functional groups. The innovative surface chemistry helps to reduce the contact angle of the novel membrane by at least a 48% and increase the pure water flux by 39.4% compared to the control membrane. The flux drop for the novel membrane is also lower (16.3% of the initial flux) than the control membrane (55.3% of the initial flux) during the long term experiments with protein solution. Moreover, the novel membrane continues to exhibit inhibition to microbes even after 1320 min of protein filtration. Synthesis of self-cleaning ultrafiltration membrane with long lasting properties opens up a viable solution for bio-fouling in ultrafiltration application for wastewater purification.

Electrophoretic interactions between nitrocellulose membranes and proteins: Biointerface analysis and protein adhesion properties

Protein adsorption onto membrane surfaces is important in fields related to separation science and biomedical research. This study explored the molecular interactions between protein, bovine serum albumin (BSA), and nitrocellulose films (NC) using electrokinetic phenomena and the effects of these interactions on the streaming potential measurements for different membrane pore morphologies and pH conditions. The data were used to calculate the streaming ratios of membranes-to-proteins and to compare these values to the electrostatic or hydrophobic attachment of the protein molecules onto the NC membranes. The results showed that different pH and membrane pore morphologies contributes to different protein adsorption mechanisms. The protein adsorption was significantly reduced under conditions where the membrane and protein have like-charges due to electrostatic repulsion. At the isoelectric point (IEP) of the protein, the repulsion between the BSA and the NC membrane was at the lowest; thus, the BSA could be easily attached onto the membrane/solution interface. In this case, the protein was considered to be in a compact layer without intermolecular protein repulsions.

Fabrication of switchable protein resistant and adhesive multilayer membranes

Fabrication of protein adhesive and resistant surfaces based on chitosan/polystyrene sulfonate (CHI/PSS) multilayer membranes is presented. Adsorption behavior of bovine serum albumin (BSA) and lysozyme to CHI/PSS multilayer was studied by simple adsorption method and under pressure driven (ultrafiltration) conditions. The protein incorporated membranes were characterized by FT-IR, UV-vis, SEM and AFM. The loading of proteins to the multilayer was found to be dependent on the nature of protein, pH, number of bilayers, methods of adsorption and time of adsorption. Simple adsorption resulted in BSA adhesive layers with some conformational changes at higher number of bilayers. Ultrafiltration leads to protein repellence at higher number of bilayers which is attributed to the presence of irremovable water. Lysozyme adsorption/sorption varied with pH. Surface coverage dominates at pH close to pI and at pH 5 under ultraflitration condition where as simple adsorption resulted in protein repellence at pI. The secondary structure of adsorbed lysozyme is preserved for a wide pH range (5-11). Desorption study of lysozyme adsorbed membranes at pH 8.8 was carried out to understand the adsorption/sorption of protein. Diffusion of the sorbed lysozyme from the inner layers to the surface is found to take place at lower concentrations of NaCl.

Ultrafiltration behavior of major ions (Na, Ca, Mg, F, Cl, and SO4) in natural waters

Aquatic colloids, including macromolecules and microparticles, with sizes ranging between 1 nm to 1 micron, play important roles in the mobility and bioavailability of heavy metals and other contaminants in natural waters. Cross-flow ultrafiltration has become one of the most commonly used techniques for isolating aquatic colloids. However, the ultrafiltration behavior of chemical species remains poorly understood. We report here the permeation behavior of major ions (Na, Ca, Mg, F, Cl, and SO4) in natural waters during ultrafiltration using an Amicon 1 kDa ultrafiltration membrane (S10N1). Water samples across a salinity gradient of 0-20@1000 were collected from the Trinity River and Galveston Bay. The permeation behavior of major ions was well predicted by a permeation model, resulting in a constant permeation coefficient for each ion. The value of the model-derived permeation coefficient (Pc) was 0.99 for Na, 0.97 for Cl, and 0.95 for F, respectively, in Trinity River waters. Values of Pc close to 1 indicate that retention of Na, Cl, and F by the 1 kDa membrane during ultrafiltration was indeed minimal (< 1-5%). In contrast, significant (14-36%) retention was observed for SO4, Ca, and Mg in Trinity River waters, with a Pc value of 0.64, 0.82, and 0.86 for SO4, Ca and Mg, respectively. However, these retained major ions can further permeate through the 1 kDa membrane during diafiltration with ultrapure water. The selective retention of major ions during ultrafiltration may have important implications for the measurement of chemical and physical speciation of trace elements when using cross-flow ultrafiltration membranes to separate colloidal species from natural waters. Our results also demonstrate that the percent retention of major ions during ultrafiltration decreases with increasing salinity or ionic strength. This retention is largely attributed to electrostatic repulsion by the negatively charged cartridge membrane.