8 research outputs found
Experimental and theoretical investigation of the complexation of methacrylic acid and diisopropyl urea
Long-term stability and reusability of molecularly imprinted polymers
Molecularly imprinted materials are man-made mimics of biological receptors. Their polymer network has recognition sites complementary to a substrate in terms of size, shape and chemical functionality. They have diverse applications in various chemical, biomedical and engineering fields such as solid phase extraction, catalysis, drug delivery, pharmaceutical purification, (bio)sensors, water treatment, membrane separations and proteomics. The stability and reusability of molecularly imprinted polymers (IPs) have crucial roles in developing applications that are reliable, economic and sustainable. In the present article the effect of crosslinkers, functional monomers and conditions for template extraction on the long-term stability and reusability of IPs was systematically investigated. Adsorption capacity, selectivity, morphology and thermal decomposition of eleven different l-phenylalanine methyl ester imprinted polymers were studied to reveal performance loss over 100 adsorption-regeneration cycles. Furthermore, crosslinker and functional monomer specific reversible and irreversible decomposition of imprinted polymers as a result of adsorbent regeneration were investigated through adsorption studies, electron microscopy, N2 adsorption and thermogravimetric analysis. A decomposition mechanism was proposed and revealed using NMR spectroscopy. Solutions to avoid or overcome the limitations of the most common crosslinkers, functional monomers and extraction techniques were proposed and experimentally validated. © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2017
Exploring and exploiting the effect of solvent treatment in membrane separations
It
is well-known that solvent treatment and preconditioning play an important
role in rejection and flux performance of membranes due to solvent-induced
swelling and solvent adsorption. Investigations into the effect of
solvent treatment are scarce and application specific, and were limited
to a few solvents only. This study reveals the trend in solvent treatment
based on solvent polarity in a systematic investigation with the aim
to harness such effect for intensification of membrane processes.
Nine solvents with polarity indices ranging from 0.1 to 5.8 (hexane
to acetonitrile) were used as treatment and process solvents on commercial
Borsig GMT-oNF-2, Evonik Duramem 300, and emerging tailor-made polybenzimidazole
membranes. TGA-GCMS, HS-GC-FID, and NMR techniques were employed to
better understand the effect of solvent treatment on the polymer matrix
of membranes. In this work, apart from the solvent treatment’s
direct effect on the membrane performance, a subsequent indirect effect
on the ultimate separation process was observed. Consequently, a pharmaceutical
case study employing chlorhexidine disinfectant and antiseptic was
used to demonstrate the effect of solvent treatment on the nanofiltration-based
purification. It is shown that treatment of polybenzimidazole membranes
with acetone resulted in a 25% increase in product recovery at 99%
impurity removal. The cost of the process intensification is negligible
in terms of solvent consumption, mass intensity, and processing time
Sustainable wastewater treatment and recycle in membrane manufacturing
Tackling the wastewater challenge in polymer membrane manufacturing with a continuous adsorption process.</p