• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.26-30
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• 2002

A droplet fractionation method was previously developed to concentrate a dilute nonfoaming protein solution. In that earlier study with invertase, it was demonstrated that droplets created by ultrasonic energy waves could be enriched up to 8 times that of the initial dilute invertase solution. In this study, a mixture of bromelain (a foaming protein) and invertase (a nonfoaming protein) is investigated as a preliminary step to determine if droplet fractionation can also be used to separate a non-foaming protein from foaming proteins. The foaming mixture containing bromelain is first removed by bubbling the binary mixture with air. After the foam is removed, the protein rich air-water interfacial layer is skimmed off (prior to droplet fractionation) so as not to interfere with the subsequent droplet production from the remaining bulk liquid, rich in non-foaming protein. Finally, sonic energy waves are then applied to this residual bulk liquid to recover droplets containing the non-foaming protein, presumed to be invertase. The primary control variable used in this droplet fractionation process is the pH, which ranged for separate experiments between 2 and 9. It was observed that the maximum overall protein partition coefficients of 5 and 4 were achieved at pH 2 and 4, respectively, for the initial foaming experiment followed by the post foaming droplet fractionation experiment.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Visualization
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.41-47
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• 2017

Microring/nanoring structure has high applicability for nano-antenna and biosensor thanks to its superior optical characteristics. Although coiling nanowires manufactured using immiscible emulsion droplets have an advantage in mass production, this process also forms nanowire bundles. In this study, we solved the nanowire bundle problem by size-selective sorting of the emulsion droplets in a pinched flow fractionation microchannel. Utilizing silver nanowires and immiscible emsulsion droplets, we investigated the correlation between the size of ring droplets and bundle droplet. We visualized the sorting process for glass particles and microring-containing emulsion droplets. Droplets were sorted based on their size, and the ratio of bundle droplets in solution decreased. This droplet-sorting strategy has potential to help the printing and coating process for manufacturing of ring structure patterns and developing of functional materials.