title: Electrospun nylon 6/zinc doped hydroxyapatite membrane for protein separation: Mechanism of fouling and blocking model.
abstract: Development of composite nanofibrous membrane via electrospinning a polymer with ceramic nanoparticles (NPs) for application in protein separation systems is explored during this study. Positively charged zinc doped hydroxyapatite (xZH) NPs were prepared in three different compositions via chemical precipitation method. Herein, we created a positively charged surface containing nanoparticles on electrospun Nylon-6 nanofibers (NFs) to improve the separation and selectivity properties for adsorption of negatively charged protein, namely bovine serum albumin (BSA). The decline in permeate flux was analyzed using the framework of classical blocking models and fitting, demonstrated that the transition of fouling mechanisms was dominated during the filtration process. The standard blocking model provided the best fit of the experimental results during the mid-filtration period. The membrane decorated by NPs containing 4at.% zinc cations not only provided maximum BSA separation but also capable of separating higher amounts of BSA molecules (even after 1h filtration) than the pure Nylon membrane. Protein separation was achieved through this membrane with the incorporation of NPs that had high zeta potential (+5.9±0.2mV) and lower particle area (22,155nm(2)). The developed membrane has great potential to act as a high efficiency membrane for capturing BSA.
authors.affiliation: Materials and Energy Research Center (MERC), Karaj, Iran.
authors.forename: Hamid
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Esfahani
authors.affiliation: Center for Nanofibers and Nanotechnology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, 2 Engineering Drive 3, National University of Singapore, 117576, Singapore. Electronic address: nanotechmpp@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Molamma P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Prabhakaran
authors.affiliation: Materials and Energy Research Center (MERC), Karaj, Iran. Electronic address: salahi@merc.ac.ir.
authors.forename: Esmaeil
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Salahi
authors.affiliation: Materials and Energy Research Center (MERC), Karaj, Iran.
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tayebifard
authors.affiliation: Materials and Energy Research Center (MERC), Karaj, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohamad Reza
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Rahimipour
authors.affiliation: Materials and Energy Research Center (MERC), Karaj, Iran.
authors.forename: Mansour
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Keyanpour-Rad
authors.affiliation: Center for Nanofibers and Nanotechnology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, 2 Engineering Drive 3, National University of Singapore, 117576, Singapore.
authors.forename: Seeram
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ramakrishna
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002209:Caprolactam / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000737:chemistry; D002417:Cattle; D017886:Durapatite / Q000737:chemistry*; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D008956:Models, Chemical; D057139:Nanofibers / Q000737:chemistry*; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D012710:Serum Albumin, Bovine / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification
chemical_list: D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D011108:Polymers; C009916:nylon 6; D012710:Serum Albumin, Bovine; D002209:Caprolactam; D017886:Durapatite
keywords: Bovine serum albumin; Fouling; Hydroxyapatite; Nanofibrous membranes