Studies on separation mechanisms of biological molecules on a polyvinyl alcohol column

Summary The chromatographic separation mechanism on a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) column in aqueous systems was explored utilizing several different types of compound such as polyethylene glycols, carbohydrates, pyrimidine and purine bases, fatty acids, monophosphate nucleotides and glycyl-peptides. Two types of separation mechanisms were found to occur for these substrates. The polyethylene glycols and the carbohydrates were eluted by size-exclusion chromatography. The retention behavior of the other substrates could be explained by the solvophobic theory, suggesting that the predominant separation mode was reversed-phase chromatography. The occurrence of reversed-phase chromatography was also indicated by the remarkable effect of the addition of ion-association reagents to the chromatographic system on the retention of the monophosphate nucleotides.     

Blended chitosan and polyvinyl alcohol membranes for the pervaporation dehydration of isopropanol

Homogeneous membranes were prepared by casting the solution of blended chitosan and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) on a glass plate. The percent weight of chitosan in the membrane was varied from 0 to 100%. The membrane thickness was in the range of 15–30 μm. The membranes were heat treated at 150 °C for an hour. After that the membranes were crosslinked by glutaraldehyde and sulfuric acid in acetone aqueous solution. The membranes were tested at 30–60 °C for dehydration performance of 50–95% isopropanol aqueous solutions. At around 90% of isopropanol in the feed mixture, permeate flux increased whereas the percent of water in permeate tended to decrease when the feed temperature increased for all membranes, except that the water content in permeate from the membrane containing 75 wt.% chitosan remained constant. The swelling degree in water and the total flux increased with increasing chitosan content in membranes. The effect of temperature on permeate flux followed the Arrhenius relationship. The permeate flux decreased when isopropanol in the feed increased for all membranes. However, water content in permeate and isopropanol concentration in the feed formed complex relationship for different chitosan content membranes. Sorption did not appear to have significant effects on separation. The membrane containing chitosan 75% performed the best. For a feed solution containing 90% isopropanol at 60 °C, the permeate flux was 644 g/m² h with water content of nearly 100% in the permeate. At 55% isopropanol in the feed at 60 °C, the permeate flux was 3812 g/m² h. In the range of 55–95% of isopropanol in the feed, the water content in permeate was more than 99.5%. This membrane showed very excellent performance with good mechanical strength. It is promising to develop this membrane for industrial uses.     

Dehydration of 1,4-dioxane by pervaporation using filled and crosslinked polyvinyl alcohol membrane

Polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH) membrane, was modified both physically and chemically by incorporation of inorganic filler, sodium aluminosilicate and chemical crosslinking with maleic acid and glutaraldehyde. The change of morphology and crystallinity of PVOH by this physical and chemical modification was studied by FTIR, DSC, TGA, SEM and XRD. These membranes were evaluated in terms of its potential for dehydration of dioxane by preferential sorption and permeation using pervaporation (PV) technique. These membranes were cast in the laboratory by solution casting from the polymer and other additives. The performance of the unfilled (containing no filler) glutaraldehyde (GA) crosslinked PVOH-1 and maleic acid (MA) crosslinked PVOH-2 membranes were compared with filled (containing aluminosilicate filler) but GA crosslinked PVOH-3 and filled but MA crosslinked PVOH-4 membranes. The filled membranes were found to show higher flux and water selectivity. Among all the four used membranes, the MA crosslinked filled PVOH-4 membrane was found to show best results in terms of both water selectivity and flux.     

A thermal degradation mechanism of polyvinyl alcohol/silica nanocomposites

The thermal degradation mechanism of a novel polyvinyl alcohol/silica (PVA/SiO₂) nanocomposite prepared with self-assembly and solution-compounding techniques is presented. Due to the presence of SiO₂ nanoparticles, the thermal degradation of the nanocomposite, compared to that of pure PVA, occurs at higher temperatures, requires more reaction activation energy (E), and possesses higher reaction order (n). The PVA/SiO₂ nanocomposite, similar to the pure PVA, thermally degrades as a two-step-degradation in the temperature ranges of 300-450 °C and 450-550 °C, respectively. However, the introduction of SiO₂ nanoparticles leads to a remarkable change in the degradation mechanism. The degradation products identified by Fourier transform infrared/thermogravimetric analysis (FTIR/TGA) and pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometric analysis (Py-GC/MS) suggests that the first degradation step of the nanocomposite mainly involves the elimination reactions of H₂O and residual acetate groups as well as quite a few chain-scission reactions. The second degradation step is dominated by chain-scission reactions and cyclization reactions, and continual elimination of residual acetate groups is also found in this step.     

Effect of high adhesive polyvinyl alcohol binder on the anodes of lithium ion batteries

High molecular weight (MW) polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) was synthesized by two-step polymerizations and employed as an anodic binder of lithium ion batteries (LIBs). Numerous hydroxyl groups in PVA formed strong hydrogen bonds with both active materials and the current collector. These strong hydrogen bonds led to an increase in the amount of binder covering the surface of active materials and significantly enhanced the adhesion strength of electrodes. The high MW PVA binder showed much better cyclic performance for silicon/carbon anodes than polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and polyacrylic acid (PAA) binders.     

Separation of single-stranded oligonucleotides on polyvinyl alcohol gel column

Summary Separation mechanisms for single-stranded oligodeoxyribo-or oligoribonucleic acid fragments were explored on an Asahipak polyvinyl alcohol gel column (GS-320) by use of sequential isomers of such molecules. Substrates having different base numbers were found to be separated by size-exclusion chromatography while those having the same numbers with different base sequences were isolated by use of the reversed-phase mode. By using those dual modes, a limit for the separation of the samples was found to arise because one mode shifted the peaks of the substrates in the sense opposite to the shift resulting from the other mode and it was found that when substrates had less than nine bases, the solutes eluted separately.     

Effect of polyvinyl alcohol on rare earths (Gd and Tb) separation by extraction resin

Small amounts of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA; 0.5-1.5 wt.%) added to extraction resin was synthesized by suspension polymerization. Their effects on the separation of rare earths (RE) were then investigated by conducting a relative comparison with the performance of pure extraction resin. The supporter and extractant of extraction resin were styrene-divinyl benzene copolymer and 2-ethylhexyl phosphonic acid mono-2-ethylhexyl ester (HEH[EHP]), respectively. The size of PVA added extraction resin was reduced by 40% particle size of pure extraction resin. Furthermore, a higher level of PVA addition, shorter effluent range and smaller resolution values were shown in the extraction. In constant PVA added extraction resin, more diluted effluent concentration, longer effluent range and bigger resolution values were shown in the extraction. This could be the result of the bonding force between the rare earths and the extraction resin due to the nature of the interaction between the OH⁻ group in PVA and the OH⁻ group in extractants such as HEH[EHP]. Thus, the bonding force between the RE and extractants was determined by the level of PVA in the resins and the acidity of the effluent solution became another important factor in the extraction performance of the rare earths. As a result, the optimal level of PVA addition and the concentration of effluent for RE (Gd and Tb) separation were determined to be 0.5 wt.% of PVA and 0.05 M HCl of effluent, respectively.     

Electrically induced gel-sol transition of polyvinyl alcohol/polyacrylamide semi-interpenetrated hydrogels

Polyvinyl alcohol/polyacrylamide semi-interpenetrated hydrogels were prepared via freeze-thaw process. When a 20 V of DC was applied across the gels, the gels with lower polyacrylamide content underwent a contraction or partly turned into solution, while for the gels with higher polyacrylamide concentration, a complete gel-sol transition was observed in a short time.     

The degradation in solid state of polyvinyl alcohol by gamma-irradiation

The viscosity of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) (Powder form) falls after irradiation. Gel does not occur after a dosage of above 1000 kGy. The G-values for scission under various conditions were measured. Irradiation of PVA brings about an increase in the intensity of a number of bands in the UV spectrum. It is shown that formation of unsaturated bonds and carbonyl groups occur under irradiation. The other one of radiolysis products is organic acid. After irradiation, the hydrolysis degree is unchanged.     

Ion-exclusion chromatography of aliphatic car☐ylic acids on a cation-exchange resin by elution with polyvinyl alcohol

Ion-exclusion chromatography of aliphatic car☐ylic acids of different acidity (pK_a) and hydrophobicity was investigated on a polystyrene-divinylbenzene (PS-DVB) based strongly acidic cation-exchange resin in the H⁺ form and conductivity detection by elution with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). When water was used as an eluent, the resolution of the car☐ylic acids was very low and the peak accompanied a fronting depending on their hydrophobicities. Therefore, to improve the peak shape and the peak resolution, aqueous eluents containing PVAs (degrees of polymerization, n=500, 1500and2000) with many OH groups were tested for the ion-exclusion chromatographic separation of the car☐ylic acids. When aqueous eluents containing PVA were used, the fronting was decreased dramatically by the effect of increased hydrophilicity of the PS-DVB cation-exchange resin surface due to adsorption of OH group in PVA. The high resolution ion-exclusion chromatographic separation without the fronting and highly sensitive conductimetric detection of the car☐ylic acids was accomplished successfully by elution with a 0.2% PVA (n=1500)-10% methanol-water.     

Dehydration kinetics of polyvinyl alcohol hydrogel wound dressings during wound healing process

<正>The hydrogel wound dressing based on polyvinyl alcohol(PVA) was prepared by the freezing-thawing cyclic method.The dehydration kinetics of prepared hydrogels was determined using the experimental method and mathematical modeling based on diffusion mechanism.The results show that the dehydration rate of PVA hydrogel wound dressing inversely depends on the hydrogel thickness as well as water content of the wound.On the other hand,the initial water content of hydrogel and the atmospheric humidity have little direct effect on the dehydration rate.The good agreement between experimental and mathematical modeling results in early stages of dehydration process shows that the predominate factor determining the dehydration of these wound dressings is diffusion.     

Systematic optimization of micellar electrokinetic chromatographic separation of flavonoids

Summary A simple and rapid systematic optimization scheme was described for the micellar electrokinetic chromatographic separation of a group of flavonoids. The scheme employed an interpretative optimization approach to predict the optimum conditions for the separation of a group of flavonoids by micellar electrokinetic chromatography. By performing a set of nine pre-planned experiments conducted over the maximum working range for the system, global optimum separation conditions could be determined. To validate the optimization procedure, additional experiments were performed using the optimum experimental conditions derived from the optimization scheme. The results showed that satisfactory separation of all the peaks could be obtained. In addition, the application of the method in micropreparative micellar electrokinetic chromatography of the flavonoids was demonstrated.     

Analysis of polyvinyl alcohol microbubbles in human blood plasma using capillary electrophoresis

Recently, a new type of ultrasound contrast agent that consists of air‐filled microbubbles stabilized with a shell of polyvinyl alcohol was developed. When superparamagnetic nanoparticles of iron oxide are incorporated in the polymer shell, a multimodal contrast agent can be obtained. The biodistribution and elimination pathways of the polyvinyl alcohol microbubbles are essential to investigate, which is limited with today's techniques. The aim of the present study was, therefore, to develop a method for qualitative and quantitative analysis of microbubbles in biological samples using capillary electrophoresis with ultraviolet detection. The analysis parameters were optimized to a wavelength at 260 nm and pH of the background electrolyte ranging between 11.9 and 12. Studies with high‐intensity ultrasonication degraded microbubbles in water showed that degraded products and intact microbubbles could be distinguished, thus it was possible to quantify the intact microbubbles solely. Analysis of human blood plasma spiked with either plain microbubbles or microbubbles with nanoparticles demonstrated that it is possible to separate them from biological components like proteins in these kinds of samples.     

Characterization of Mn doped ZnS nanocrystalline powder dispersed in polyvinyl alcohol: 1st Nano Update

Manganese doped zinc sulfide nanocrystalline powder was synthesized with sodium citrate and its films were formed by mixing it with polyvinyl alcohol to study optical absorption of Mn doped ZnS dispersed in polyvinyl alcohol. The characteristics of the prepared powder and film samples were studied by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and UV–visible absorption spectroscopy. Samples exhibited optical absorption at lower wavelength region and particle sizes were calculated from X-ray diffractogram.     

Synthesis,characterization and antibacterial properties of a novel nanocomposite based on polyaniline/polyvinyl alcohol/Ag

In this study, a novel nanocomposite based on polyaniline/polyvinyl alcohol/Ag (PANI/PVA/Ag) has been successfully synthesized. The chemical reduction method was used to produce Ag nanoparticle colloidal solution from Ag⁺ ions. The polymerization of aniline occurred in situ for the preparation of polyaniline (PANI) in the presence of ammonium persulfate. With exposure to Ag nanoparticles on the PANI/PVA composite, a new nanocomposite was obtained. The morphology and particle size of the novel nanocomposite was studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) analyses. According to XRD analysis, the size of nanoparticles was found to be in the range of 10–17 nm. SEM images showed the favored shape of nanoparticles as triangle which is a benign shape for antibacterial analysis. The antibacterial activity of the obtained nanocomposite was also evaluated against Gram positive bacteria Staphylococcus aureus (Staph. aureus) and Gram negative Escherichia coli (E. coli) using the paper disk diffusion method. The antibacterial study showed that the PANI/PVA composite did not have a very good antibacterial activity but PANI/PVA/Ag nanocomposites were found to be effective against two bacteria.     

Facilitated transport of CO2 in novel PVAm/PVA blend membrane

A defect-free ultra thin PVAm/PVA blend facilitated transport membrane cast on a porous polysulfone (PSf) support was developed and evaluated in this study. The target membrane was prepared from commercial polyvinyl amine (PVAm) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). Effects of experimental conditions were investigated for a CO₂–N₂ mixed gas. A CO₂/N₂ separation factor of up to 174 and a CO₂ permeance up to 0.58 m³(STP)/(m² h bar) were documented. Experimental results suggest that CO₂ is being transported according to the facilitated transport mechanism through this membrane. The fixed amino groups in the PVAm matrix function as CO₂ carriers to facilitate the transport whereas the PVA adds mechanical strength to the blend by entanglement of the polymeric chains hence creating a supporting network. The good mechanical properties obtained from the blend of PVA with PVAm, enabled an ultra thin selective layer (down to 0.3 μm) to be formed on PSf support (with MWCO of 50,000), resulted in both high selectivity and permeance. The PVAm/PVA blend membrane also exhibited a good stability during a 400 h test.     

Novel covalently coated diazoresin/polyvinyl alcohol capillary column for the analysis of proteins by capillary electrophoresis

A novel method for the preparation of covalently linked capillary coatings of PVA was demonstrated using photosensitive diazoresin (DR) as coupling agents. Layer‐by‐layer self‐assembly film of DR and PVA based on hydrogen bonding was first fabricated on the inner wall of capillary, then the hydrogen bonding was converted into covalent bonding after treatment with UV light through the unique photochemistry reaction of DR. The covalently bonded coatings suppressed basic protein adsorption on the inner surface of capillary, and thus a baseline separation of lysozyme, cytochrome c and BSA was achieved using CE. Compared with bare capillary or noncovalently bonded DR/PVA coatings, the covalently linked DR/PVA capillary coatings not only improved the CE separation performance for proteins, but also exhibited good stability and repeatability. Due to the replacement of highly toxic and moisture‐sensitive silane coupling agent by DR in the covalent coating preparation, this method may provide a green and easy way to make the covalently coated capillaries for CE.     

Particle-loaded hollow-fiber membrane adsorbers for lysozyme separation

The separation of lysozyme (LZ), a valuable enzyme naturally present in chicken egg white, was carried out using a new type of ion exchange hollow-fiber membranes. Functionalities were incorporated into the polymeric membranes by dispersing ion-exchange resins (IERs) in a microporous structure formed by phase inversion. The obtained hollow-fibers were composed of ion-exchange particles surrounded by a polymeric matrix and possessed both high static and dynamic adsorption capacities of more than 60 mg/ml membrane. The hollow-fiber membrane adsorbers were connected in series with different numbers of fibers thereby increasing the effective thickness and the protein residence time within the module. By choosing appropriate operation conditions, the membranes adsorbed solely LZ from fresh chicken egg white (eventually also the minor component avidin), whereas the adsorption of ovalbumin, ovotransferrin, and other low isoelectric point proteins was negligible. An average separation factor for LZ of about 150 was calculated by numerical integration of the protein concentrations in the elution curve during the filtration run. The effect of the filtration flow rate, protein concentration and ionic strength on the membrane's performance was investigated to determine the optimum operation parameters.     

前驱体分子结构对聚糠醇基碳膜微结构及气体分离性能的影响

分别以草酸(OA)和碘(I)两种催化剂合成聚糠醇(PFA)前驱体制备气体分离碳膜. 采用TG, FTIR和XRD对其微结构进行研究, 并通过纯组分气体的渗透实验对碳膜的分离性能进行了探讨. 研究结果表明, 在热解过程中, 两种结构的聚糠醇都是通过脱氧、重排、环化、芳构化等热分解和热缩聚反应逐渐转化为无定形的乱层碳结构, 但热分解反应过程明显不同, 所形成碳膜微结构的差异也很大. 草酸催化剂制备的聚糠醇碳膜的微晶Lc值比碘催化剂制备碳膜的大, 而d(002)和La值则比后者的小, 表明草酸催化剂制备的聚糠醇碳膜碳微晶片层数多、排列规则、结构缺陷和孔隙均小于碘催化剂制备的聚糠醇碳膜, 而且其气体分离选择性较高、渗透通量较小, 表明聚糠醇的分子结构对所制备碳膜的微结构及气体分离性能有很大影响.     

Enhancement in sensitivity of nitro blue tetrazolium polyvinyl alcohol film dosimeters by sodium formate and Triton X-100

Nitro blue tetrazolium polyvinyl alcohol film dosimeters, NBT-PVA were prepared and evaluated based on radiation-induced reduction of NBT²⁺. NBT-PVA film dosimeters containing different concentrations of NBT dye from 1 to 5 mM were prepared in a solution of ethanol. The dosimeters were irradiated with ?-ray from ⁶⁰Co source at doses up to 50 kGy. UV/vis spectrophotometer was used to investigate the optical density of un-irradiated and irradiated films in terms of absorbance at 529 nm. The absorbance increases with absorbed dose up to 50 kGy for NBT-PVA film dosimeters. The dose sensitivity of NBT-PVA film increases strongly with increase of concentrations of NBT dye. The effects of irradiation temperature, humidity, dose rate and the stability of the response of the films after irradiation were investigated. A considerable increase was observed in the dose response of NBT-PVA film by adding appropriate concentration of sodium formate and Triton X-100.