Search

Fabricated hydrogel composited membrane (HCM) is developed to reproduce the crystallization environment of monosodium urate monohydrate (MSUM) and then is equipped on a facile and versatile dynamic bionic platform to reveal the pathogenesis and control mechanism of gout after alcohol consumption. Especially, PEGDA/AA HCM can achieve the effective delay of MSUM nucleation and inhibition the crystals deposition (from 100% to 7.5%). [Display omitted] • Facile and versatile HCM based bionic platform was developed for gout control research. • Potential trigger mechanism of gout attack after alcohol intake was revealed. • PEGDA/AA HCM with abundant carboxylic acid groups effectively restrained MSUM crystallization. Gout is the most common of inflammatory arthropathy caused by the crystallization and accumulation of monosodium urate monohydrate (MSUM) in joints. Herein, fabricated hydrogel composited membrane (HCM) is developed to simulate the mass transfer in joints. A facile and versatile HCM based dynamic platform is established to investigate the "triggers" mechanism of gout under alcohol and its metabolites (acetaldehyde (AH) and acetic acid (HAc) intake condition. The distinct role of EtOH on enhanced gout onset was demonstrated, which attributes to the low interaction energy (E int) between EtOH and the main crystal surface. While, HAc and carboxyl groups exhibit potentially restrain the MSUM crystallization. This conclusion is furtherly confirmed by the different restraint performance of two kinds of fabricated HCM. PEGDA/AA (polyethylene glycol diacrylate/acrylic acid) with abundant carboxyl groups can delay the appearance time of MSUM crystals from 20 h to 82 h and reduce the crystal yield to 7.5% of the one via PEGDA/NIPAM (N-isopropylacrylamide). The excellent electronegativity of PEGDA/AA renders the adsorption of sodium ion on the HCM interface, which furtherly increases the nucleation energy barrier of MSUM crystal. The functional HCM based platform can guide the relevant biomedical research and rational drug design for gout prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Two flow regimes were observed in membrane assisted reactive crystallization (MARC). • Reversible transitions between liquid layer and droplet can be achieved on membrane surface. • Controllable mixing and ions diffusion conditions were achieved via MARC. • Crystals with narrow nano/micro size distribution were obtained via MARC. Herein, membrane-assisted reactive crystallization (MARC) with effective interfacial flow regimes was proposed to achieve the effective mass transfer control during reactive crystallization. Three tube-shell side solution systems (EtOH-H 2 O, Butanol-H 2 O and H 2 O-H 2 O) were chosen to form different flow regimes on the membrane surface, including the microscale liquid layer and the uniform droplets. The fundamental mechanisms of 'rising and falling tide' phenomenon, and flexible layer thickness control were uncovered. A force analysis model was established to illustrate the transition behavior of the droplet and liquid layer on the membrane surface. Molecular simulations additionally demonstrated that MARC implemented various ion diffusion conditions in different solution systems. Compared to the conventional reactive crystallization, MARC with multiple flow regimes can achieve effective control of CaCO 3 crystal size ranging from 700 nm to 3 μm and obtain uniform size distribution (coefficient of variation less than 15.1 %), which shed light on the advanced material manufacture with reactive crystallization process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanofiltration (NF) is a promising technique to achieve sustainable and efficient separation of antibiotics with high industrial value. In this work, carboxymethyl- β -cyclodextrin (CM- β -CD) modified nanofiltration membrane was fabricated through interfacial polymerization (IP) for high concentration cephalexin solution separation, which is a classic antibiotic pharmaceutical wastewater. In principle, CM- β -CD can slow down the diffusion of amine monomers via electrostatic attraction, steric effect, hydrogen bonding and adsorption of the piperazine (PIP) monomer onto the hydrophilic surface, which renders amine monomer the high local concentration. The fabricated NF membranes possessed a larger proportion of dense primary layer on the surface. In addition, the accumulation of CM- β -CD between the substrate membrane and polyamide (PA) layer played the role as a barrier with specific cavity structure and bulk carboxylate to enhance the rejection of cephalexin. The cavity structure and stacking gap of CM-β-CD simultaneously rendered the membrane interlayer highly permeable. The optimal CM- β -CD modified membrane exhibited high rejection of cephalexin (94.7%) and water permeability of 122.4 L m−2 h−1 MPa−1 when the concentration of cephalexin was 3473.9 ppm (10 mmol/L). This work furnished an available way to prepare a novel nanofiltration membrane with efficient separation performance for relevant pharmaceutical production wastewater. [Display omitted] • Polyamide primary layer was constructed by pressure-assisted deposition of CM- β -CD prior to the interfacial polymerization. • CM- β -CD strengthened the separation process in conjunction with the dense, defect-free primary layer. • Modified membrane exhibited high permeability and rejection for the treatment of high concentration cephalexin solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]