Preparation and Adsorption Properties of Novel Porous Microspheres with Different Concentrations of Bilirubin.

BACKGROUND: Plasma perfusion was widely used to clear toxic substances of plasma. Particle size and uniformity of adsorbent microspheres also affect the absorption rate. METHODS: Conventional suspension polymerization was improved using a pre-dispersion homogenizer to obtain novel adsorbent microspheres, named ERM-0100. Microsphere-related characteristics and attributes were analysed. RESULT: The ERM-0100 microspheres efficiently adsorbed different bilirubin concentrations, with a maximum rate of 59.72 ± 1.08%. At high bilirubin concentrations, ERM-0100 exhibited similar adsorption rate with BRS350 and BS330 (p = 0.303, p = 1.000, relatively), and higher than HB-H-6 (p = 0.000). At different concentration, ERM-0100 showed good adsorption performance. The ERM-0100 had no significant adsorption for electrolyte; for TP and ALB, the loss rates of ERM-0100 were 15.65 ± 0.36 and 23.23 ± 1.11%, respectively. In addition, ERM-0100 showed good blood compatibility. CONCLUSION: The ERM-0100 is a potential biomedical material for plasma perfusion for good effect, less costs and more safety. The microspheres may be coated to reduce its protein adsorption.

Resource recovery of wastewater treatment sludge: synthesis of a magnetic cancrinite adsorbent.

Water treatment sludge, which is mechanically dewatered and landfilled as solid waste, is considerably generated in water plants for potable water production. Herein, a novel route to hydrothermally convert this sludge into magnetic particles (MPs) is demonstrated. The sludge comprised amorphous aggregates with a relatively high Al/Si ratio of 3.7 and low Fe content of 8.5 wt%. After hydrothermal treatment, the Al/Si ratio of the MPs was approximated to 1, which was unaffected as the NaOH concentration increased from 2 M to 4 M or 6 M. The amorphous sludge was converted to MPs in the following order: spherical sodalite with a diameter of 3-5 µm, large spherical sodalite with a diameter of 5-10 µm and crystal dendritic cancrinite. Dendritic cancrinite was generated by recrystallisation of amorphous Al/Si oxides with spherical sodalite as the intermediate. With the addition of ascorbic acid, magnetisation of the weakly magnetised sludge increased from 0.11 emu g-1 to 3.6 emu g-1 and 14.8 emu/g by raising the NaOH concentration from 2 M to 4 M and 6 M. The magnetic property was related to the magnetite generated from the reduction of ferrihydrite and hematite in the sludge by the added ascorbic acid. Dendritic cancrinite exhibited an optimal surface site concentration of 0.31 mmol g-1 and desirable adsorption capacity of tetracycline (TC) (482.6 mg g-1), which were twice those of spherical sodalite prepared with 4 M NaOH. This study not only highlights the resource recovery of wastewater treatment sludge for MP preparation but also presents a new and effective adsorbent for treatment of TC-containing wastewater.