Sedimentation field flow fractionation of immunoglobulin A coated polystyrene beads

Determination of number-based size distribution of silica particles using centrifugal field-flow fractionation

Determination of the number-based size distribution of silica particles using the centrifugal field-flow fractionation (CF3) method was investigated. Since the accurate determination of the number-based size distribution of materials is essential in the fields of nanotechnology and biotechnology, the establishment of a robust evaluation method is attractive. We explored optimization of the fractionation conditions for CF3 using silica particles. Using pure water media as the eluent, a band broadening effect was clearly found, and this effect became stronger with higher initial centrifugal field strengths. After addition of 0.05 wt% aqueous FL-70 as a dispersant in the eluent, size fractionation could be performed effectively at higher centrifugal field strengths, providing excellent size separation results. After optimization of the CF3 separation condition, we determined the number-based size distribution of silica particles using three methods: FE-SEM only, CF3 with multi-angle light scattering (CF3-MALS), and a combined CF3 with FE-SEM method (CF3-FE-SEM). To meaningfully compare the CF3-MALS results with the other two methods, we transformed the light scattering intensity to particle numbers using Mie theory. The determined number-based mean sizes of silica particles by the three methods agreed well; however, the evaluated standard deviation of the number-based size distribution of silica particles by the CF3-MALS method was slightly different. This was attributed to the unreliable sizing by MALS of smaller sized particles or low particle concentrations. The combined CF3-FE-SEM method provided near equal accuracy as the costly FE-SEM only and allowed for a significantly faster methodology because CF3 separation reduced the number of silica particles required for an accurate sizing down to just 50 particles per fraction.

Characterization methods for studying protein adsorption on nano-polystyrene beads

This work is dealing with the use of polystyrene (PS) nanoparticles as substrates for bioanalytical specific interactions. Different techniques were used for the accurate characterization of the PS nanoparticles of 100 nm and 196 nm before coating them with a layer of antibodies against immunoglobulins of type E (aIgE), giving to the particle a specific functionality. The formation of the aIgE adsorbed layer was monitored using centrifugal particle separation (CPS) and centrifugal field flow fractionation (CF3) experiments, which allowed to determine the size changes and the adsorbed mass. Particle sizes were also measured with DLS, used both as stand-alone instrument and coupled to CF3 (CF3-DLS). The complementary information obtained from the CPS and CF3-DLS measurements allowed the estimation of the density of the aIgE shell. The proteins immobilized at the surface fully retained their activity, as proven by the reactions between the functionalized PS-aIgE particles and immunoglobulins of type E (IgE) dispersed in suspensions prepared on purpose.

Explicit role of ionic strength in retention behavior of polystyrene latex particles in sedimentation field-flow fractionation: Slip boundary model

We investigate an explicit role of the ionic strength in the retention behaviors of polystyrene (PS) latex particles in sedimentation field-flow fractionation (SdFFF) by hinging upon the retention theory recently developed [1] asR=(R_o+v_b^*)/(1+v_b^*). Here R is an experimental retention ratio, and R_o is the analytical expression of the standard retention theory based on the parabolic flow velocity. The reduced boundary velocityv_b^* is expressed in terms of the ionic strength I of the carrier liquid as v_b^*=v_b,o^*/(1+εI), where v_b,o^*=0.070and ε=60 mM^-1 for all the PS latex systems under investigation. We then apply this to study the explicit ionic strength effect on the retention behaviors of PS beads of 200, 300, 400, and 500nm, respectively. As a primary result, the strong dependence of the retention ratio on the ionic strength can be quantitatively accounted for in an excellent accuracy: The slip effect at the channel surface is significant, particularly when I≲0.5mM, without showing any distinguishable dependence on the specific additives to control I, such as FL-70, SDS, NaNO₃, and NaN₃. Based on the present study, we put forward an experimental means to estimate the ionic strength of an aqueous solution using an FFF technique.

Effect of surfactant on retention behaviors of polystyrene latex particles in sedimentation field-flow fractionation: effective boundary slip model approach

A retention theory in sedimentation field-flow fractionation (SdFFF) was developed by exploiting the effective slip boundary condition (BC) that allows a finite velocity for particles to have at the wall, thereby alleviating the limitations set by the no-slip BC constraint bound to the standard retention theory (SRT). This led to an expression for the retention ratio R as R = (R(o) + v*(b))/(R(o) + v*(b)), where R(o) is the sterically corrected SRT retention ratio and v*(b) is the reduced boundary velocity. Then, v*(b) was modeled as v*(b) = v*(b,o)/[1 + (7K*S(o))(1/2)], where S(o) is the surfactant (FL-70) concentration and K* is the distribution coefficient associated with the langmuirian isotherm of the apparent effective mass against S(o). We applied this to study the surfactant effect on the retention behaviors of polystyrene (PS) latex beads of 170-500 nm in diameter. As a result, an empirical relation was found to hold between v*(b,o) and d(o) (estimated from R(o) at S(o) = 0) as v*(b,o) - v*(o,o)[1 - (d(c)/d(o))], where v*(o,o) is the asymptotic value of v*(b,o) in the vanishing d(c)/d(o) limit and d(c) is the cutoff value at which v*(b,o) would vanish. According to the present approach, the no-slip BC (v*(b,o) = 0) was predicted to recover when d(o) ∼ d(c), and the boundary slip effect could be significant for S(o) ≤ 0.05%, particularly for large latex beads.