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Cross-linked melamine imprinted monoliths targeting glyphosate were synthesized using 4-phosphonobutanoic acid (PBA) and N-(phosphonomethyl)iminodiacetic acid (PMIDA) as templates. The binding capacities, evaluated in an aqueous medium, showed that both PMIDA and PBA promoted selective binding sites with imprinting factors of 2.5 and 1.7, respectively. Despite a relatively low imprinting factor, the polymer imprinted with PMIDA showed a noticeably higher binding efficiency in the presence of sodium chloride compared to the nonimprinted reference, demonstrating an ability to selectively target the desired analytes in real sample matrices. Spectroscopic investigations using Fourier transform infrared and 1H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy revealed the formation of “memory pockets” for glyphosate molecules in the imprinted melamine-formaldehyde scaffold promoted by simultaneous contributions from (i) hydrogen bonding with N-H/O-H moieties and (ii) electrostatic interaction toward the triazine ring.

The replacement of fossil-based plastics with biobased and biodegradable alternatives has become an important research challenge in recent years, aiming to eliminate the negative environmental impact of persistent plastics in nature. In this report, design of experiments was successfully exploited to develop an efficient and sustainable method for extracting intracellular PHA from Photobacterium ganghwense C2.2 using dihydrolevoglucosenone (Cyrene) and ethanol as biobased solvents obtainable from sustainable sources. The extraction conditions were studied and optimized against the yield and molecular weight. The temperature range for the extraction was scouted by using differential scanning calorimetry, while size exclusion chromatography coupled to refractive index and multiangle light scattering detectors was used to assess the molecular weights of the extracted polymers. The examined ranges in the model were, respectively, 1.6–8.4% (w/v) of lyophilized cells content per 10 mL of solvent, 3–17 min extraction time, and temperatures from 116 to 144 °C. Time and temperature strongly affected the extraction yields and molecular weights of the obtained polymers while the concentration of bacterial biomass only effected the molecular weight. Several quadratic and interaction coefficients were significant in the well-fit partial least-squares regression models (R² > 0.8, Q² > 0.6) indicating that nonlinear effects and interacting parameter contributed to the optimization targets. The optimized extraction should be performed at 130 °C for 15 min with 2% loading of bacterial biomass. The predicted yield and molecular weight of the polymer matched the values obtained from the real experiment under the optimized conditions. The method setup provided similar yield and higher molecular weight in much shorter time compared to overnight Soxhlet extraction with CHCl₃. The clean ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance spectra of polymers extracted from bacteria indicate that high purity materials can be obtained using an optimized extraction scheme. Additionally, the Cyrene solvent could be recycled at least five times and still performed the extraction equally well as the fresh solvent. Finally, the current method demonstrated a high potential for scalability using a HP4750 stirred filtration cell. Three different filtration conditions were tested, achieving up to 97.4% recovery at 80 °C using a 0.3 μm glass fiber membrane, with a flux of 312.5 LMH.

Hydrophilic interaction chromatography is well known as a powerful technique separation of polar and ionizable compound nowadays. However the retention mechanism of the technique is still under debate. Understanding retention mechanism would facilitate the method development using the technique and its future improvement. This was inspiring and became the goal of this thesis.

This work involves the characterization of the water enriched layer regarding to water and buffer salt accumulation. Twelve HILIC stationary phase with a diverse surface chemistry regarding to function groups and modification type were studied. Effect of water and salt on regarding to the retention mechanism was investigated by correlating the adsorption data to the retention of selected solutes

This also involved the characterization of interactions involve in the separation of 21 HILIC columns. Interactions was probe by retention ratio of pair solutes which are characteristic for each specific interaction. The data was evaluate using principle component analysis – a multivariable data analysis method. The model was comprehensive and its outcomes were confirmed by the studies on adsorptions of water and salts.

In hydrophilic interaction chromatography, water is known to accumulate on the stationary phase to form a water enriched layer, which is believed to play an important role in the retention mechanism. To gain a better understanding retention mechanism in HILIC, we have determined the water uptake on twelve different HILIC stationary phases. Non-modified and monomerically functionalized silica phases followed a pattern of monolayer formation followed by multiple layer adsorption, while the water uptake on polymerically functionalized silica stationary phase showed the characteristics of formation and swelling of hydrogels. This difference in the nature of water accumulation was found to be related to different water uptake patterns when methanol and tetrahydrofuran were added to 80:20 % (v/v) acetonitrile/water by replacing 5 % of the acetonitrile as tertiary solvents, and also when ammonium acetate was added as buffering electrolyte. The relationship between water uptake and retention mechanism was investigated by looking at the correlation between retention factors of neutral analytes and phase ratios of HILIC columns, calculated either as surface area (adsorption) or volume of the water layer enriched from the acetonitrile/water eluent (partitioning). Regardless of the adsorption or partitioning mechanism, the interaction of neutral analytes and stationary phase could be mainly the hydrogen bonding between analytes and the accumulated water in the water enriched layer.

Both poly(styrene-co-vinylbenzyl chloride-co-divinylbenzene) and poly(4-methylstyrene-co-vinylbenzyl chloride-co-divinylbenzene) monolithic columns have been hypercrosslinked and for the first time used to achieve capillary electrochromatographic separations. Although these columns do not contain ionizable functionalities, electroosmotic flow was observed due to adsorption of ions from a buffer solution contained in the mobile phase on the surface of the hydrophobic polymer. An increase of more than one order of magnitude was observed with the use of both monolithic polymers. The hypercrosslinking reaction creates a large surface area thus enabling adsorption of a much larger number of ions. Alkylbenzenes were successfully separated using the hypercrosslinked monolithic columns.

This work aims at characterizing interactions between a select set of probes and 22 hydrophilic and polar commercial stationary phases, to develop an understanding of the relationship between the chemical properties of those phases and their interplay with the eluent and solutes in hydrophilic interaction chromatography. "Hydrophilic interaction" is a somewhat inexact term, and an attempt was therefore made to characterize the interactions involved in HILIC as hydrophilic, hydrophobic, electrostatic, hydrogen bonding, dipole-dipole, π-π interaction, and shape-selectivity. Each specific interaction was quantified from the separation factors of a pair of similar substances of which one had properties promoting the interaction mode being probed while the other did not. The effects of particle size and pore size of the phases on retention and selectivity were also studied. The phases investigated covered a wide range of surface functional groups including zwitterionic (sulfobetaine and phosphocholine), neutral (amide and hydroxyl), cationic (amine), and anionic (sulfonic acid and silanol). Principal component analysis of the data showed that partitioning was a dominating mechanism for uncharged solutes in HILIC. However, correlations between functional groups and interactions were also observed, which confirms that the HILIC retention mechanism is partly contributed by adsorption mechanisms involving electrostatic interaction and multipoint hydrogen bonding. Phases with smaller pore diameters yielded longer retention of solutes, but did not significantly change the column selectivities. The particle diameter had no significant effect, neither on retention, nor on the selectivities. An increased water content in the eluent reduced the multipoint hydrogen bonding interactions, while an increased electrolyte concentration lowered the selectivities of the tested columns and made their interaction patterns more similar.

A combined surface activation and "grafting to" strategy was developed to convert divinylbenzene particles into weak cation exchangers suitable for protein separation. The initial activation step was based on plasma modification with bromoform, which rendered the particles amenable to further reaction with nucleophiles by introducing Br to a surface content of 11.2 atom-%, as determined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Grafting of thiol-terminated glydicyl methacrylate telomers to freshly plasma activated surfaces was accomplished without the use of added initiator, and the grafting was verified both by reduction in bromine content and the appearance of sulfur-carbon linkages, showing that the surface grafts were covalently bonded. Following grafting the attached glydicyl methacrylate telomer tentacles were further modified by a two-step procedure involving hydrolysis to 2,3-hydroxypropyl groups and conversion of hydroxyl groups to carboxylate functionality by succinic anhydride. The final material was capable of baseline separating four model proteins in 3 min by gradient cation exchange chromatography in a fully aqueous eluent.

Macroporous epoxy-based monoliths prepared by emulsion polymerization have been modified for use in ion exchange chromatography (IEC) of proteins. Strong anion exchange functionality was established by iodomethane quaternization of tertiary amine present on the monolith surface as a part of the polymer backbone. The modification pathway to cation exchange materials was via incorporation of glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) brushes which were coated using atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). Strong (SO₃^-) and weak (COO^-) cation exchange groups were thereafter introduced onto the GMA-grafted monoliths by reactions with sodium hydrogen sulfite and iminodiacetic acid, respectively. Grafting was confirmed by XPS, gravimetric measurement, and chromatographic behavior of the modified materials toward model proteins. In incubation experiments the proteins were recovered quantitatively with no obvious signs of unfolding after contact with the stationary phase for >2 h. Chromatographic assessments on the functionalized columns as well as problems associated with flow-through modification by ATRP are discussed.

Ammonium acetate is a buffer salt commonly added to mobile phase in HILIC to improve the reproducibility of the retention of analytes. Adding buffer salt would then result to the change in retention and selectivity. In this study, we have developed methods for determine ammonium acetate in form of its hydrolyzed products (ammonium ion and acetate ion) adsorption on twelve different HILIC stationary phases under various mobile phase condition. The effect of functional group and mobile phase compositions on salt adsorption was then discussed. We also tried to develop a method for characterization important retention mechanism of HILIC systems and interpreted them under the relationship with salt adsorption. Adsorption of salt was based on both portioning and electrostatic interaction. Ammonium was found to preferentially adsorb on HILIC stationary phases except Purospher Star NH2 phase. It is worth noting that adding salt to mobile phase can promote partitioning retention mechanism, possibly as a result of phase separation due to salt out effect.