Flux stabilization of silicon nitride microsieves by backpulsing and surface modification with PEG moieties

The influence of the surface properties of chemically modified silicon nitride microsieves on the filtration of protein solutions and defatted milk is described in this research. Prior to membrane filtrations, an antifouling polymer based on poly(ethylene glycol), poly(TMSMA-r-PEGMA) was synthesized and applied on silicon-based surfaces like silicon, silicon nitride, and glass. The ability of such coating to repel proteins like bovine serum albumin (BSA) was confirmed by ellipsometry and confocal fluorescence microscopy. In BSA and skimmed milk filtrations no differences could be seen between unmodified and PEG-coated membranes (decreasing permeability in time). On the other hand, reduced fouling was observed with PEG-modified microsieves in combination with backpulsing and air sparging

New membranes based on polyethersulfone – SlipSkin™ polymer blends with low fouling and high blood compatibility

Hemodialysis is an important therapy for treating patients with End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD). These patients visit the hospital 3 times a week and each time their blood is cleansed during 4-hour dialysis sessions using a hollow fiber membrane module; also called artificial kidney. This device mainly achieves removal of small water-soluble toxins and a limited number of middle molecules. To improve the clearance of toxins, especially middle molecules and protein bound toxins, longer treatment via nocturnal dialysis and/or the application of portable/wearable artificial kidney is required. Such therapies require application of membranes with very low fouling and very good blood compatibility. Current membranes often contain hydrophilic additives which could elute during sterilization processes and/or during long-term filtration. In this study, we propose a simple method for developing low fouling blood compatible membranes by blending of polyethersulfone (PES), a material already used for fabrication of dialysis membranes, with small amounts of SlipSkin™ (SS), a blood compatible random copolymer of hydrophilic N-vinylpyrrolidone (NVP) and hydrophobic N-butylmethacrylate (BMA). Our results show that membranes with 2 wt% of SS have high fouling resistance to proteins and middle-size molecules and very good blood compatibility, making these membranes promising for application in dialysis therapy

Composite hollow fiber membranes for organic solvent-based liquid-liquid extraction

Instability issues of liquid membranes extraction significantly limit its wide application in industry. We report research on the application of a new composite hollow fiber membrane to stabilizing liquid membrane extraction. These type of composite membranes have either a polysulfone (PSf) ultrafiltration or an Accurel polypropylene microfiltration membrane as support and sulphonated poly(ether ether ketone) (SPEEK) as a coating layer. Applied as supported liquid membrane, the composite membranes showed significant improvement in stability compared to uncoated membranes. Applied in a membrane contactor, stable operation for more than 2.5 months was realized. A resistance model was developed to estimate the copper flux of the membrane contactor. The applicability of the model was proven for both the polysulfone and the polypropylene-based contactor systems. We further present the concept of encapsulated composite hollow fiber membranes with SPEEK layers encasing the extraction liquid into a hydrophobic support membrane

A facile method to fabricate poly(l-lactide) nano-fibrous morphologies by phase inversion

Scaffolds with a nano-fibrous morphology are favored for certain tissue engineering applications as this morphology mimics the tissue’s natural extracellular matrix secreted by the cells, which consists of mainly collagen fibers with diameters ranging from 50 to 400 nm. Porous poly(l-lactide) (PLLA) scaffolds obtained by phase inversion methods generally have a solid-wall pore morphology. In contrast, this work presents a facile method to fabricate highly porous and highly interconnected nano-fibrous scaffold sheets by phase inversion using PLLA of very high molecular weight (5.7 × 105 g mol–1). The scaffold sheets consist of nano-fibers within the desired range of 50–500 nm. When applying phase separation micromolding as a fabrication method besides the porous nano-fibrous morphology, an additional topography can be introduced into these sheets. Culturing of C2C12 pre-myoblasts on these nano-fibrous sheets reveals very good cell adhesion, morphology and proliferation. Excellent alignment of the cells is induced by fabrication of 25 μm wide microchannels in these sheets. These results warrant further evaluation of these sheets as tissue engineering scaffold

One-step fabrication of porous micropatterned scaffolds to control cell behavior

This paper reports a one-step method to fabricate highly porous micropatterned 2-D scaffold sheets. The scaffold sheets have high glucose diffusion, indicating that the porosity and pore morphology of the scaffolds are viable with respect to nutrient transport, and a micropattern for cell alignment. HUVEC culturing proved that the scaffold sheets are suitable for cell culturing. More extensive culturing experiments with mouse myoblasts, C2C12, and mouse osteoblasts, MC3T3, showed that tissue organization can be controlled; the micropattern design affects the extent of cell alignment and tissue formation. Cells are favorably settled in the micropattern and even at higher confluence levels, when the cells start to overgrow the ridges of the micropattern, these cells align themselves in the direction of the micropattern. Preliminary multi-layer stacking experiments indicate that the 2-D scaffold sheets are very promising as basis for building 3-D scaffolds

Vibrating polymeric microsieves: Antifouling strategies for microfiltration

Constant flux performance in time is achieved with polyethersulfone (PES) polymeric microsieves when filtering protein solutions, skimmed milk and white beer in combination with backpulsing. Such microsieves are fabricated by phase separation micromolding (PSμM) and possess pores around 2 μm. The filtration of bovine serum albumin (BSA) solutions at neutral pH results in constant flux when backpulsing. The constant flux performance is related to the ability of polymeric microsieves to flex during permeate pressure pulsing. Their flexibility allows pressure pulse transmission to the feed and, therefore, almost no flow reversal occurs. The membrane motion affects the hydrodynamics in the feed channel and disturbs the polarization layer and the cake deposited. Reference experiments with stiff SixNy-based microsieves, nuclepore and macroporous microfiltration membranes show different behavior: the permeate pressure pulse hardly translates into the feed channel. Backpulsing for these membranes is less effect as anti-fouling strategy. Backpulsing of polymeric microsieves also allows stable flux operation for other complex feeds like skimmed milk and white Belgian beer

Designing porosity and topography of poly(1,3-trimethylene carbonate) scaffolds

Using phase separation micromolding (PSμM) we developed porous micro-patterned sheets from amorphous poly(1,3-trimethylene carbonate) (PTMC). The use of these PTMC sheets can be advantageous in tissue engineering applications requiring highly flexible constructs. Addition of poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) in various amounts to PTMC casting solutions provides PTMC sheets with tailored porosity and pore sizes in the range 2–20 μm. The pore-forming effect of PEO during the phase separation process is evaluated and glucose transport measurements show that the pores are highly interconnected. Additionally, tailoring the micro-pattern design yields PTMC sheets with various surface topographies. Cell culturing experiments with C2C12 pre-myoblasts revealed that cell attachment and proliferation on these sheets is relatively high and that the micro-pattern topography induces a clearly defined cell organization