Separation by Flotation

Foam separation of Rhodamine-G and Evans Blue using a simple separatory bottle system

A simple separatory glass bottle was used to improve separation effectiveness and cost efficiency while simultaneously creating a simpler system for separating biological compounds. Additionally, it was important to develop a scalable separation method so this would be applicable to both analytical and preparative separations. Compared to conventional foam separation methods, this method easily forms stable dry foam which ensures high purity of yielded fractions. A negatively charged surfactant, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), was used as the ligand to carry a positively charged Rhodamine-G, leaving a negatively charged Evans Blue in the bottle. The performance of the separatory bottle was tested for separating Rhodamine-G from Evans Blue with sample sizes ranged from 1 to 12mg in preparative separations and 1-20μg in analytical separations under optimum conditions. These conditions including N₂ gas pressure, spinning speed of contents with a magnetic stirrer, concentration of the ligand, volume of the solvent, and concentration of the sample, were all modified and optimized. Based on the calculations at their peak absorbances, Rhodamine-G and Evans Blue were efficiently separated in times ranging from 1h to 3h, depending on sample volume. Optimal conditions were found to be 60psi N₂ pressure and 2mM SDS for the affinity ligand. This novel separation method will allow for rapid separation of biological compounds while simultaneously being scalable and cost effective.

The recent progress of solvent sublation

Solvent sublation is a kind of adsorptive bubble separation technique in which the surface-active (or hydrophobic) compounds in aqueous phase are adsorbed on the bubble surfaces of an ascending gas stream and then collected in an organic layer placed on top of the aqueous phase. The technique has many advantages, such as high separation efficiency, high concentration coefficient, low dosage of organic solvent, soft separation process, and simple operation. Thus, this technique has been widely applied in many fields. The present article reviews solvent sublation's theoretical research and some applications in the last 10 years, and gives the development trend in the future.