Membrane Processes and Surface Chemistry Modification

Joseph Imbrogno-Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering-CBIS

Talked to us about the different characteristics of membranes, and how those characteristics affect the purpose and function of the membrane.  The Achilles heel of membranes is excessive fouling-Joe was trying to prevent and/or find ways to correct the fouling of a membrane.   Later, we went into the lab and found that it is fairly easy to make a membrane, with basic chemistry of polymers, solvents and non-solvents (phase inversion).

Uses:

Desalination—removing salt (and other minerals) from water

Food Production—purifies and concentrates food components; ultrafiltration of milk yields cheese

Reverse osmosis—treats and purifies drinking water

Types:

Symmetric vs. Asymmetric—pores are all the same size for symmetric membranes and pores are varying sizes for asymmetric membranes

Organic vs. Inorganic—depends on the material:

Organic—natural polymers, Teflon PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene), rubber, wool, cellulose and polyamide-imide (PAI)

                Inorganic—metallic powders, and ceramics

Hydrophilic vs. Hydrophobic—for protein separations, hydrophilic surfaces perform the best

Fouling—irreversible build-up of solute at or in the membrane and will eventually lead to stop of flow completely

Occurs 3 ways:

Pore blockages-particles block the pores of the membrane

Pore constriction—particles “stick” to the inner walls of the pores of the membrane and cause a decrease in flow of the solution

Cake formation—solute lays down and forms thick layers on top of membrane and complete blocks pores and membrane surface

Two Types of Flow:

Cross Flow—solution flows tangential to the membrane and only the particles that can fit through pores are able to pass through membrane—much more effective

Dead-End Flow—solution flows head on into the membrane—results in more fouling

Ternary Diagram:

Don't worry too much about this for the quiz: A graph/diagram with 3 variables and axis’s: membrane type, pore size and type, and casting composition.  Phase 1 is the solvent and polymer before the membrane is produced, Phase 2 is the result of the three variables and how they will affect each other.  The variables will add up to a constant, K, usually 1.0 or 100%.  The graph shows the ideal efficiency and one could find the actual efficiency, using the actual values of each variable.       

Connections:

Dr. Koratkar—dropped material in water (non-solvent) and an entirely different outcome was produced

Dr. Ullal and Palermo—characteristics and properties of materials determine the results yielded by that material

Protein interactions

Name : Brian Murray
Department : Chemical and Biological Engineering
Topic : Protein-Protein Interactions
Date : November 24,2015

Social Value

 The research we learned about is important because it affects many of our lives. Understanding
how proteins interact with each other is extremely important in understanding protein based
diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, and many more. The better we
understand such diseases, the closer we get to being able to combat and defeat them.


Government Connection

The fingerprint experiment connects to government because when a crime takes place, police
often use forensics to detect fingerprints at the scene. Fibril detection is similar to fingerprint
detection because it breaks down to the organic chemistry of each thing.

Economics Connection
●
If the detection is used in health care, it will have to be done at a cost that is available to
patients. This relates to “Economies of Scale.”

● Resistance cost
Antibiotics
are becoming less effective and it’s costing the US $2134
billion a year to fix it. If we can develop the solution, it can save billions in the budget (and many lives)

Guest Connections
●Ullal and Palermo proteins
are also polymers
● Lindhardt Relating
to health care
● Silva Polymers
● Borten Economies
of Scale

Terms/Concepts
●Protein Linear
chain of amino acids
● Neurofibrillary Tangles The
reason why some diseases occur
● Amyloid Plaques - build up of tangles; obvious in autopsy of diseasesd.
● ABeta
The
protein responsible for Alzheimer’s Disease
● Amyloid Fibers
When
the ABetas
stick together
● Antimicrobial Resistance
Bacteria
start becoming tolerant to medicines
● Antimicrobial Peptides
one possible olution
to eliminating Antimicrobial Resistance

Tour

Tuesday November 24, 2015

Presenter: Dr. Marimar Lopez

Department: Director, CBIS Research Core Administration

Topic:Tour of the Building

There are several state-of-the-art Research Cores at the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies Building.  These resources are available to Rensselaer faculty, staff and students.

•     Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)- Best technique for determining structure of organic compound. (For example, does the substance have a ring of carbons, or a straight chain? Does it have a carbon bonded to an oxygen bonded to a different carbon, or does it have a carbon double bonded to an oxygen?) Also, NMR can be used to determine if a substance is pure (hmmm...this substance isn't supposed to have any R-C-OH bonds, something else must be in here.)  It is a physical phenomenon in which nuclei in a magnetic field absorb and re-emit electromagnetic radiation.  It is used  for “solution structure determination” (determine structure of an organic compound) of tiny molecules such as proteins, carbohydrates, and macromolecular complexes at atomic resolution. 

•     Isothermal Titration Calorimeter- Used most often to study how small molecules (such as pharmaceuticals) bind to large molecules (such as proteins.) Allows simultaneous determination of binding parameters such as the equilibrium constant, enthalpy of binding and stoichiometry of the interaction

•     Chromatography-  This is not your elementary school "smash up leaves and let them streak into colors" stuff. These are elaborate techniques to separate a mixture by a specific characteristic of its components. The entire mixture is passed through a medium that proportionally slows down molecules based on a certain parameter.   Laboratory techniques for the separation of a mixture. If I ran a chemical experiment and wanted to quantify and identify every component in the resulting solution, I would use chromatography (likely HPLC - high pressure liquid chromatography).

•     X-Ray Crystallography- Equipment used to identify the atomic and molecular structure of a crystal.  Crystalline atoms cause x-rays to diffract into many specific directions. This would be used to determine the structure of atoms in a substance. Dr. Shi talked about this as well, when he talked about atoms functioning like slits for diffraction - visible light waves have a wavelength of about 5000 atoms, so we cannot tell one atom from another if we shine visible light on them. But xrays have much tinier wavelengths and seeing how atoms diffracts xray waves tells us how atoms are connected - at what angles, in what crystal pattern, etc.

•     Atomic Force Microscopy- This can be used to slowly scan the surface of small material, down to resolution of tens of nanometer.  It is very gentle and can be used to monitor real time transcription (copying DNA), and real time interaction between sub-cellular biological molecules such as microtubules and proteins. It can resolve structures on nanometer scale.  It has a dry and wet mode scanning.  A bioheater module facilitates live cell imaging for cells where temperature control is essential.

•     Klett Meter- Used to measure cell growth

•     Centrifuge- It is an equipment with a rapidly rotating container that applies centrifugal force to its contents.  It is used to separate fluids of different densities(or liquids from solids). 

•     Mass Spectrometer- Instrument which can measure the masses and relative concentrations of atoms and molecules.  It uses the basic magnetic force on a moving charged particle.  Basically you smash up something into its component ions, measure the abundance of those ions, and then back-calculate what that substance was . If you want to know "what is this?" the mass spec is your first instrument to try.

•     Microbiology and  Fermentation(Smelly Room)- Facilitates bacterial growth, harvesting and processing on a small, medium. and large scale

•     Sonicator- Sound/ Ultrasound is used to disrupt cell membrane and release cellular content. (Dr. Koratkar also used an ultrasonicator.)

Sources

http://biotech.rpi.edu/facilities

http://biotech.rpi.edu/facilities/nuclear-magnetic-resonance-research-nmr

Metals and Ceramics

Quick summary from today:

• What's a question you asked today or to one of Dr. Belfort's team, or our tissue engineers? (Tissue engineering is not on quiz, but questions to them count.)
• Be able to explain (with a few exceptions that you don't have to explain) do colored substances have high electrical resistance?
• Does everything with temperature give off light?
• How does angular momentum play a role in understanding that the old model that "electrons orbit nuclei" cannot be true?
• Why might he Titanic be less likely to sink if it hit the same iceberg at the same speed in the same way, if it was built out of today's steel?
• Know something about the following classes of materials: steel, super alloys, titanium alloys, shape memory alloys, biodegradable metals - which materials are best used where and why?
• What are the advantages of lithium polymer batteries over traditional lithium ion batteries?
• Why are Ti, Al, and Mg used in laptops and air crafts?
• Why is Ti more expensive than Al?
• Useful terms, ideas, concepts:
• ev (electron volt)
• actuate
• phase (as used in context of metals; not 'solid liquid and gas'.)
• resistance
• black body radiation
• band gap
• conduction band compared to valence band
• photo electric effect
• emission spectra
• role of temperature in material ages (e.g. bronze age)
• contributions of Schrodinger
• marble in tube analogy for conduction and valence bands
• insulator, semi-conductor, and conductor
• diffraction (resolution benefits of light, xray, and electron)
• Connections to other guests - Dr. Koratkar (batteries), Dr. Palermo and Ullal (materials), Mr. Colwill (clean room) 

Helps and Hints

  The following paragraph comes from an article published this year in Nature:

The key to making stable [metal organic frameworks] MOFs is to use clusters of metal atoms as the nodes, rather than individual ions. The geometry of the clusters determines the overall architecture of the crystal, which can be held together by a cornucopia of organic linkers. The growing set of interchangeable Tinkertoy components makes MOFs much more adaptable than zeolites and enables chemists to design products with pores that have just the right size and chemical properties for specific applications. Today, there are MOFs that can withstand temperatures of 500 °C, or easily endure a week in boiling methanol; others have internal surface areas that are triple that of MOF-5, or pores large enough to accommodate chunky proteins³.

•    How does what you learned from Dr. Koratkar (Li ion batteries) and Dr. Ullal and Palermo (materials) help you interpret or better understand or visualize what is being said here. Use specific example, facts, or imagery that our guests shared
     It has been said that the field of engineering can be defined as “applying math and science cost effectively”.  With that in mind what elements of the scenario Dr. Silva shared with us show that he was acting as a “cost effective” engineer rather than doing fundamental scientific research.  In your answer, use specific scientific details about what he taught us.
      It has been said that scientific invention is “creating something” while engineering innovation is “creating something that others want to buy.” With that in mind, how is Dr. Koratkar innovating rather than inventing? In your answer, use specific scientific details about what he taught us.
  Be able to use the following terms in context

  Metal	Ceramics	Glass	Polymer	Body centered cubic	Face centered cubic
  Amorphous	Defect	Vacancy	Ductile	Brittle	Dislocation
  Ductility	Transparency	Translucent	Opaque	Elasticity	Conformation
  Plastic	Thermoset	Thermoplastic	Bisphenol	Short path condenser	Partial reflux condenser
  Electroplating	Scaling	Surface area to volume ratio	Gibbs phase rule	Biodiesel	Ethanol
  BTU	MTBE	Energy density	Power density	Oxidation	Thermal shock
  Heparin	Graphene	Graphite	Anode	Cathode

•  What was a key insight that Dr. Linhardt learned (and shared with us) about the role of federal government when an important pharmaceutical is thought to be or become in short supply

Materials Science and Engineering

Professor Ed Palermo & Professor Chaitanya Ullal

Materials Science & Engineering

Gave a lecture and demos on how different chemical structures and environmental variables affect a material’s properties. Civilization is determined by the advances in materials.

Types of Materials (characterized by performance, properties, processing and structure)

• Metals

• Pure metal (Groups 1-12 + Al, Ga, In, Tl, Sn, Pb, Bi, Po only)
• Ductility Varies
• Opaque
• Crystalline Structure
• Ceramics
• One metal and one nonmetal
• Brittle
• Opaque
• Crystalline Structure
• Glass
• Mostly Silicon Dioxide or “Silica” (Sand)
• Brittle (additives affect how much (Plexiglass / fiberglass) )
• Transparent
• Amorphous Structure
• Polymers
• Plastics
• Long hydrocarbon chains
• Most variable of all materials (Ductile, brittle, transparent, translucent, opaque, etc.)
• Types include PET, HDPE, LDPE, PVC, PP, Polystrene
• He showed us a demo of heat changing HDPE to LDPE

Structure

• Crystalline Materials

• Metals, Ceramics and Some Polymers
• Organized atomic structure
• Prone to defects
• Cubic Structure

• Primitive Cubic (Nothing but the edge vertices of the cube)
• Body-Centered Cubic (Extra atom in center of cube)
• Face-Centered Cubic (Extra atom in center of each face of the cube)

• Hexagonal Packing (Cannonball Problem)

• Most efficient method of stacking objects
• Each atom has six surrounding it
• Structures made of spherical components naturally pack hexagonally

• Amorphous Materials

• Glasses and Some Polymers
• Non-specific atomic structure

• Defects

• Vacancy
• Smaller/Larger atoms
• Differing number of neighboring atoms
• Dislocations – necessary in ductile materials – the dislocation propagates in response to pressure

Properties

• Ductility

• Object’s ability to change shape
• Brittle (Shatters easily) ←→ Ductile (Bends easily)
• Dependent on atomic structure
• Transparency
• Object’s ability for light to pass through it
• Opaque (Cannot see through) ← Translucent → Transparent (Can see through)
• Elasticity
• Object’s ability to absorb force, bend and reanimate back to its original shape
• Inelastic (Does not allow for bending) ←→ Elastic (Allows for bending)

External Factors

• Temperature

• Mostly affects ductility
• Demonstrated through rapid cooling by way of liquid nitrogen and shattering a plastic water bottle
• Demonstrated through rapid heating by way of a torch and blowing a bubble out of the heated plastic of a water bottle

Connections

• Cleanroom

• Structure matters (single crystal versus grain boundaries)
• Potential material change adds advantages and disadvantages
• SME:
• annealing to strengthen with regard to grain boundary structure
• Thermoset versus thermoplastic polymers
• Dr. Chen – polymers and polymer conformation (RNA and proteins)
• Dr. Koratkar – sometimes there are advantages to material defects