1 research outputs found
Synthesis and characterisation of size-selective nanoporous polymeric adsorbents for blood purification
This thesis is concerned with the development and characterisation of
polymeric nanoporous adsorbents to be used for blood purification. Current
treatment methods for suffers of chronic renal failure are limited to
haemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis and organ transplant. Organ transplant is
the most efficient option however lack of donor organs mean that the majority
of suffers rely on dialysis. Unfortunately both dialysis treatments are lacking
when it comes to the removal of middle molecular weight molecules (MMs)
(500 - 60000 Da) and the accumulation of these molecules has been
attributed to a number of additional ailments suffered by those on long term
dialysis. Sorbent augmented dialysis has been identified as a potential
avenue to remove these MMs, an additional column would be introduced to
the haemodialysis loop this would contain adsorbent particles to remove
these unwanted molecules. Styrene-divinylbenzne copolymers have been
identified as suitable for this task as they will non-specifically adsorb a wide
range of molecules. One major concern with the introduction of a polymeric
adsorbent is the potential removal of human serum albumin HSA from the
patient’s blood, this essential blood protein is present in very high
concentrations typically 40g/l and this will potentially swamp the surface of
any adsorbent. Fortunately HSA is a large blood protein (69kDa) and as
such the method to combat this limitation as explored in this thesis is to tailor
the pore structure of the polymeric adsorbent to size exclude albumin while
retaining sufficient adsorption capacity to remove the MMs. To achieve these
goals a number of polymeric adsorbents were generated using different
porogens and degrees of crosslinking to control the porous structure. These
adsorbents were analysed using a number of characterisation methods to
assess their dry and swollen state porosities and molecular weight cut offs.
Once a suitable material had been developed protein adsorption studies
were carried out to confirm the size exclusion of HSA and the uptake of MMs