Biography:

Chun Yi Chen has completed her PhD from Tokyo Institute of Technology. She was a Research Assistant Professor for next generation battery project in Waseda University from 2012 to 2015. She is currently a Research Assistant Professor of Precision and Intelligence Laboratory in Tokyo Institute of Technology, focusing on advanced electrochemical technique for biomedical materials and devices. She has published many papers in reputed journals and received 6 awards from the international conferences.

Abstract:

In recent years, Au has become promising material used as the movable structures and proof mass in micro-electrical-mechanical system (MEMS) accelerometers, because the density of Au is about 10 times higher than that of silicon and the sensitivity of the MEMS accelerometer can be improved with a reduction in the density. However, Au is known to be a soft material and the mechanical strength becomes a concern in miniaturization of the MEMS device. One of the approaches is to decrease the grain size of the Au material to increase the mechanical properties according to the Hall-Petch relation. Pulse plating has been reported to be effective to fabricate metal films with finer grain, higher uniformity and lower porosity. On the other hand, application of supercritical carbon dioxide (Sc–CO₂) in electroplating of metal film has also received recent research interests. Physical and transport properties such as density, viscosity, diffusivity and reactant solubility in Sc–CO₂ can be adjusted through control of pressure and temperature. Sc–CO₂ is often used as a substitute or additive to control overall physical and transport properties of the reaction medium. Surface tension and viscosity of Sc–CO₂ are much lower than those of aqueous solution. In this work, grain refinement, surface smoothening and compressive strength enhancement of Au films were achieved by an electroplating using Sc–CO₂ emulsified electrolyte.

Biography:

Sladjana Tomic Skrbic has studied Biotechnology at Beuth University of Applied Sciences, Berlin, Germany and completed her PhD at Max-Planck-Institute of Biochemistry, Germany and Heidelberg University, Germany. She was a Post-doc at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany. Now she is a Senior Process Development Scientist at Merck KGaA in Darmstadt, Germany, where she provides high quality scientific and technical support to Merck customers developing or manufacturing biopharmaceuticals. She also publishes and presents at conferences on bioprocess technologies.

Abstract:

The first step in the purification of a therapeutic product is clarification that typically combines multiple separation technologies such as centrifugation, tangential flow microfiltration and depth filtration. Recent advances in mammalian expression systems have led not only to very high cell density cultures and increased protein titers, but also to low viability feed streams with high proportion of solid fraction that made those techniques less attractive. Complexity and issues at scale-up limits the use of the centrifugation, while clarification of such high density cell harvests solely by depth filtration can be costly due to high filter areas required. In this study, we present a complete clarification solution that combines cell harvest pretreatment with a polycationic flocculating agent (pDADMAC), followed by depth filtration using enhanced depth filters that were specifically developed for filtration of flocculated or precipitated feed streams. Multiple antibody feed streams have been treated with pDADMAC and filtered using Clarisolve depth filters resulting in improved removal of cells and cell debris, efficient reduction of DNA and high process yield. Overall, this innovative clarification approach leads to reduced filter area, enhanced impurity removal and process simplification of high density cell harvests that can be readily incorporated into current clarification platforms.

Biography:

Giuseppina Raffaini received the Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and the Post-graduate Diploma at Advanced School in Polymer Science G. Natta; the inter-university Master’s in Biomaterials (supervisor Prof. M. Santin), in 2005 and the PhD in Materials Engineering (supervisor Prof. F. Ganazzoli) from Politecnico di Milano. In 2008, she became Assistant Professor and in 2014 Associate Professor at the Politecnico di Milano. Her research interests are molecular dynamics simulations of protein adsorption on biomaterials, inclusion complexes and self-assembling of modified cyclodextrins. She is co-author of 40 original peer-reviewed ISI papers (H-index Scopus=17), 2 invited reviews and 5 contributions to books.

Abstract:

The separation of enantiomeric chiral nanotubes that can form non-covalent complexes with an unlike stability upon adsorption of chiral molecules is a process of potential interest in different fields and applications. Using fully atomistic molecular dynamics simulations we can study the adsorption and denaturation of an oligopeptide taken from human serum albumin formed by 16 chiral amino acids having a helical structure in the native state on both the inner and the outer surface of the chiral (10, 20) and (20, 10) single-walled carbon nanotubes having an opposite handedness, and of the armchair (16, 16) nanotube with a similar diameter for comparison. In the final adsorbed state, the oligopeptide loses in all cases its native helical conformation, assuming elongated geometries that maximize its contact with the surface through all the 16 amino acids. We find that the complexes formed by the two chiral nanotubes and the chosen oligopeptide have a strongly unlike stability both when adsorption takes place on the outer convex surface of the nanotube, and on the inner concave surface. Thus, the molecular simulations indicate that separation of chiral enantiomeric carbon nanotubes for instance by chromatographic methods can indeed be carried out using oligopeptides of a sufficient length. Moreover, membranes formed by aligned chiral single-walled carbon nanotubes of a given handedness might also act as chromatographic chiral selectors for appropriate racemic mixtures, with also possible application in the field of proteomics. The favorable protein–nanotube interaction would yield significantly different retention times.

Biography:

Rafael Lucena is professor at the Analytical Chemistry Department of the University of Córdoba since 2010. He has coauthored 80 scientific articles and several chapters mainly on microextraction techniques. He has been guess editor in one special issue of Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry journal devoted to this field. He is the editor of Microextraction Tech blog.

His main research interest comprises different areas, especially the development of new microextraction techniques as well as the evaluation of ionic liquids and nanoparticles in this context. Nowadays, he is also working on biorecognition.

Abstract:

The performance of a given microextraction technique depends on both thermodynamic and kinetic factors. In fact, thermodynamics defines the total amount of analyte that can be isolated while kinetics describes the time required to achieve the mass transference equilibrium. Therefore both aspects, which in some cases may be opposite forces, have to be studied in depth and they have being the focus of an intensive research in the last decades.

Agitation is usually found in the scientific literature as a kinetic variable of paramount importance in microextraction techniques since it facilitates the diffusion, and therefore the transference, of the analytes from the bulk sample to the solid/liquid phase that acts as extractant. Sample agitation is common to the majority of the microextraction techniques although it can be performed in two different ways. In the simplest approach, the agitation is done by a external element (typically a magnetic bar). Although this strategy has been successfully applied in many well established techniques like solid phase microextraction (SPME) may have two shortcomings, namely (i) the higher turbulence is produced far from the sample/extractant interface and (ii) the magnetic bar, especially if it is coated with a polymer, may coextract a part of the analyte. These shortcomings may be overcome if a second approach, where the agitation element and the extractant phases are integrated in the same device, is applied. This simple idea, which was firstly proposed by Prof. Sandra in the so-called stir bar sorptive extraction, has been exploited in different formats in the last years.

This communication tries to give a general overview of the contributions of our research group in this context. The main microextraction techniques developed in our laboratories, including the so-called stir membrane extraction, will be discussed in depth presenting the main research lines for the next years.

Biography:

Masato Sone completed his Doctor degree of Engineering at Tokyo Institute of Technology. He worked as a Researcher in Nippon Oil Company from 1996 to 2000. He was an Assistant Professor and then a Research Associate Professor at Tokyo University of Agriculture & Technology from 2000 to 2005, and he got the position of Associate Professor at Tokyo Institute of Technology from 2005 until present time. He has published more than 127 papers in scientific journals and 18 books. His majorities are microelectronics, surface finishing, chemical engineering, liquid crystal and polymer science. His recent research topic has been “Novel Nano Wiring Process Using Supercritical Carbon Dioxide for Integrated Circuit Technology”.

Abstract:

Copper wiring into nanoscale holes with high aspect ratio by electrodeposition is an important problem for 3-D integration in integrated circuit technology toward miniaturization of electronic devices. However, void and pinhole found in Cu wiring for the integration can cause trouble for miniature device. Cu electroplating method without void and pinhole is needed. We have proposed novel electroplating methods with supercritical carbon dioxide (sc-CO₂) emulsion (EP-SCE). The electrochemical reaction is carried out in an emulsion of sc-CO₂ in electrolyte with surfactants. Sc-CO₂ has low viscosity and compatibility of hydrogen. Thus, this method is applicable in fine Cu wiring. The aim of this report is to examine Cu electrodeposition by using sc-CO₂ emulsified electrolyte into nano-scale Cu wiring on the viewpoints of dissolution of Cu seed layer, gap-filling capability into nano-scale holes and contamination in the plated Cu. Moreover a continuous-flow reaction system is proposed and examined for filling of Cu into holes with 60 nm in diameter and aspect ratio of 2 and 5 by EP-SCE on a round-type large-area hole test element group with diameter of 300 mm, which has an integrated structure of Cu seed layer on TiN barrier layer sputtered on Si substrates.

Biography:

Sara Garcia Salgado completed her PhD in 2013 from Technical University of Madrid, Spain. She is Assistant Professor in this University and Deputy Director for External Relations at School of Civil Engineering. She has published 10 papers in reputed journals and published two books.

Abstract:

Nowadays, there is considerable interest in arsenic speciation in food products due to the different toxicity exhibited by the different arsenic compounds. This is accentuated in the case of marine algae, because they contribute substantial amounts of arsenic to the human diet and their consumption is increasing due to their properties as food additives, nutritional values and suggested medical applications. Organic arsenic compounds are abundant in marine ecosystems. Although most of the arsenic compounds identified so far have been water-soluble species, the early work on arsenic marine chemistry focused on lipid-soluble compounds. In 1988, an arsenolipid was first rigorously characterized and identified as an arsenosugar-containing phospholipid in algae. Subsequently, several arsenic-containing fatty acids and hydrocarbons have been discovered in different fish products, which origin was presumed to be algae. In this work, we report the water and lipid-soluble arsenic compounds found in 9 commercially available edible marine algae from Japan and Spain. The extraction of water-soluble arsenic species was performed by microwave-assisted extraction, using deionized water as extracting agent, and they were determined by HPLC-(UV)-HG-AFS. Lipid-soluble arsenicals were extracted by mechanical shaking with a (2:1; v/v) chloroform/methanol mixture, purified by SPE on home-made silica columns and determined by online HPLC-ICPMS/ESMS analysis. 6 water-soluble arsenic species, comprising DMA, As(V) and 4 arsenosugars (glycerol, phosphate, sulfonate and sulfate sugars), as well as 14 lipidsoluble arsenic species (3 arsenic-containing hydrocarbons and 11 arsenosugar-containing phospholipids), were found in the water and chloroform extracts, respectively, of the edible marine algae analyzed.

Biography:

Wan Ting Chiu is currently a Doctoral student Majoring in Materials Science and Engineering in Tokyo Institute of Technology. She received her MS from Chemical Engineering Department at National Tsing Hua University in 2014. Then she worked as a Research Assistant in Institute of Physics, Academic Sinica. She has a strong background in phase diagram and phase equilibria. Her current research topic is metallization of flexible texture for medical wearable devices.

Abstract:

As the medical technology advances, the requirements of the next-generation healthcare devices are urgently demanded. Implantable and wearable medical devices are the latest applications over the decades. Nickel, copper and aluminum are widely used in the aforementioned devices because of the simple process and low cost, however, adverse reactions such as allergies and Alzheimer's disease might take place due to the releasing of metal ion. A biocompatible material thus becomes the most urgent demand. Platinum is considered to be the most promising material owing to its irreplaceable biocompatibility. Moreover, silk is a common material used in clothes. The combination of Pt and silk is considered to be a promising candidate for the medical devices. Electroless plating can put these composite materials into practice and further achieve homogeneous metallized-surface due to the low deposition rate. Typical electroless plating consists of pretreatment to clean and roughen the surface, catalyzation to embed the catalysts as a nucleation site into the substrate, and the plating step for the metallization. In spite of the dominance of Pt, electroless plating of Pt remains less studied due to the hardship of controlling the deposition of platinum by electroless technique via the traditional catalyzation. An up-to-date technique of supercritical carbon dioxide (sc-CO₂) assisted catalyzation is practiced in this study to overcome the instinct difficulty of Pt plating. With the help of the exceptional self-diffusivity, low surface tension, and affinity to non-polar materials of sc-CO₂, the catalyst can be inlaid to the substrate while the substrate structure remains undamaged.

Biography:

Debarati Mitra has completed her MTech degree from the University of Calcutta and subsequently completed her PhD in Chemical Engineering from Jadavpur University. She is presently working as Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Technology, University of Calcutta. She has published 18 papers in reputed international journals and has been engaged in research in the fields of membrane separation processes, biotechnology and biopolymers.

Abstract:

Diesel combustion in transportation and other industrial activities release toxic air pollutants like polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) that can cause serious health effects. According to the worldwide fuel charter, PAH in diesel has to be limited to 2% m/m (max.). Removal of PAHs from diesel is conventionally achieved via hydroprocessing which is hazardous, expensive and gives low conversions. Membrane pervaporation, a unique combination of permeation and evaporation which is comparatively a simple and inexpensive method can be applied for separating PAHs from diesel efficiently. An aromatic polyimide membrane was fabricated and successfully used for the said purpose. The efficiency of the process was evaluated in terms of permeation flux of PAHs. The effect of different physico-chemical parameters on the permeation flux was investigated and the process was optimized using response surface methodology with a view to maximize the flux of PAHs.

Biography:

Adolfo Iulianelli, Degree in Chemical Engineering, is a PhD in Chemical and Material Engineering. Nowadays, he works at the Institute on Membrane Technology of the Italian National Research Council. He published more than 50 articles in international scientific ISI journals, more than 20 chapters in international books, author of one patent and a book and of more than 50 papers in proceedings of national and international conferences. He is Reviewer of more than 20 scientific ISI journals, Associate Editor of International Journal Of Membrane Science & Technology, Editor of Journal of Membrane Science and Technology, Advances in Chemical Engineering and Process Technology, Journal of Fuels and Scientific World Journal as well as is serving as Guest Editor for International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. His H-index today is equal to 22.

Abstract:

The main industrial process for producing hydrogen is represented by the natural gas reforming, which consists of a multi-step process in which the steam methane reforming takes place in harsh conditions (800-1000 °C and 15-20 bar), followed by two water gas shift reactors and other separation/purification stages for producing high purity hydrogen. However, the natural gas composition of the feeding stream can vary widely from source to source, but each of them contains some traces of H₂S. This can damage dramatically the permeation characteristics of the Pd-based membranes and, consequently, affect the overall performance of the membrane reactor. In the last years, many authors studied the preparation of composite membrane based on Pd alloyed with other metals, such as Au, Ag, Pt or Cu, responsible of higher resistance to sulfur contamination. In this study, a composite membrane constituted of a thin layer of Pd-Au supported on porous supports has been fabricated for their utilization in hydrogen separation field. For comparison, a supported pure Pd-membrane has been also studied in order to compare the performance under long-time operation of the different membranes and for evaluating the H₂S effects on both systems. They have been also used in membrane reactors to carry out steam methane reforming reaction, by comparing the experimental results with an equivalent conventional reactor.

Biography:

Tso Fu Mark Chang received his BASc in Chemical Engineering from the University of Toronto (2004), MS in Chemical Engineering from National Tsing Hua University (2007), and PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from Tokyo Institute of Technology (2012). He is currently Assistant Professor of Precision and Intelligence Laboratory at Tokyo Institute of Technology. His research interests include pressure and solvent effects on reactions in supercritical CO₂ and characterization of the materials fabricated in supercritical CO₂. He has published more than 50 papers in reputed journals.

Abstract:

Metal oxides such as TiO₂ and ZnO are widely applied as biosensors, biomaterials and as the support in a drug delivery system because of the high biocompatibility. The synthetic approaches include hydrothermal methods, cathodic deposition, anodic oxidation and sol-gel method. Among them, cathodic deposition offers a low-cost yet effective process for production of metal oxides with controllable morphology. However, the as-deposited TiO₂ and SnO₂ are usually amorphous. An additional heat treatment process, for example, annealing at 400°C for 1 hr, is needed to obtain crystalline TiO₂. The need of the post-heat hinders the applicability of the products. Therefore, it is practically significant if crystalline metal oxides can be obtained directly from the cathodic deposition without the additional heat treatment, or lower the temperature needed in the heat treatment. On the other hand, the effect of pressure on the crystallinity of metal oxides deposited from the solution phase is rarely investigated. In a previous study, grain size of the TiO₂ cathodically deposited with a supercritical CO₂ (sc-CO₂) emulsified electrolyte (SCEM) was found to be increased with an increase in the pressure. In this later study, crystal structure of the TiO₂, ZnO, and SnO₂ were found to be affected by the applied pressure used during the deposition. The as-deposit TiO₂ and SnO₂ were found to be composed of nano-crystallines when the SCEM was applied. In this presentation, the effect of pressure on crystal structure of metal oxides deposited using the SCEM will be reported.

Biography:

Liu Qing is currently pursuing her PhD at Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China. She received her Master in Chemical Engineering at National University of Singapore. Her current research focus is solving environmental issues, such as water contamination and recovery, air pollution, using membrane separation techniques, in particular, by electrospinning. She has published 5 papers in reputed journals.

Abstract:

Electrospinning is a novel technique to produce nanofibers with a diameter of 100 nm to >1. In electrospinning, when a high voltage is supplied to a liquid droplet, a charged liquid jet is formed. The bending instability between the jets cause thinning and elongation of the fibers, subsequently, resulting in formation of uniform nanofibers, which have high specific area, porosity and interconnecting pore structures, thus, are suitable for energy and environmental applications. In our work, a novel Fe₃O₄/polyacrylonitrile (PAN) composite nanofiber mat was prepared by a simple two-step process, electrospinning and solvothermal method. Surface characterization demonstrated formation of a uniform cubic phase Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles coating (about 20 nm in thickness) on the PAN nanofiber backbone. The coating doubled the specific surface area of NFs, from 8.4 to 17.8 m²g^-1, as confirmed by nitrogen sorption isotherm analysis. To evaluate the feasibility of Fe3O4/PAN composite NFs as a potential adsorbent for antibiotic removal, batch adsorption experiments were conducted using tetracycline (TC) as the model antibiotic molecule. The results showed that Fe₃O₄/PAN composite NFs was effective in removing tetracycline with no impactful loss of Fe at pH regime of environmental interest (4 to 8). The maximum adsorption capacity calculated from Langmuir isotherm model was 257.07 mg g^-1 at pH 6. The composite NFs also exhibited good regenerability over repeated adsorption/desorption cycles. This highly effective and novel adsorbent can be easily modularized and separated, promising its huge potential in drinking and waste water treatment for antibiotic removal.

Biography:

Carlos Antonio has a BS in Chemistry from UFMG (graduated in 1990) and PhD in Metallurgical Engineering and Mining, also from UFMG (2002). CNPq researcher level 2; Researcher in CDTN - Nuclear Technology Development Center, an agency belonging to the CNEN (National Nuclear Energy Commission) since 1990. Operates in the development, optimization and application of hydrometallurgical processes, using mainly leaching techniques, solvent extraction and chemical precipitation.

Abstract:

http://separationtechniques.conferenceseries.com/This work presents an investigation of solvent extraction parameters to obtain high purity cerium from a mixture containing other rare earths elements, in alternative to the oxidation and selective precipitation or dissolution. The study was carried using a sample of a sulphuric liquor obtained from monazite leaching rich in light rare earth elements (La, Ce, Pr, Ne) provided by INB (Indústrias Nucleares do Brasil). Tests were realized in chloridric, nitric and sulfuric medium. For the experiments in nitric and chloridric medium, the rare earth elements from the liquor were precipitated in rare earths oxalate form, precipitated and then dissolved in the respective medium. The parameters investigated were: Type and concentration of oxidant agent, type and concentration of extractant, liquor acidity and volumetric ratio between organic and aqueous phases. Preference of the organic phase to extract cerium in its oxidase form (IV) above the other rare earths elements, allowing the obtainment of a high purity cerium solution was confirmed. Best results were achieved in nitric medium, P507® as extractant and a mixture of potassium persulfate and silver chloride as oxidant agents, yielding over 98% cerium extraction with over 99% of purity.

Biography:

Professor Liming Zhao has completed his PhD at the age of 32 years from Jiangnan University (China). He is professor and director of a research center focusing on separation and purification technology (membrane and chromatography) at East China University of Science and Technology. He has published more than 50 papers in reputed journals and 2 monographs, and serving as an editorial board member of repute.

Abstract:

Owing to the abundant existence, low-value food stuff, such as egg-laying hens, might be cheap resource of histidine-containing peptides, such as carnosine (Car), which have various functions with attractive application as food supplements. Herein, carboxyl group functionalized mesoporous silica of SBA-15 was synthesized to facilely incorporating NiO, ZnO and CoO for Car extraction. Among these, Ni/SBA-15 has the highest adsorption capability. The correlation between the most significant parameters such as adsorbent dose, pH, background salts, contact times, Car concentration and the elution was optimized, and the effects of these parameters on the adsorption efficiency of Car were investigated. Thanks to the adequate pore size and high Ni loading, the adsorption capacity of Car onto Ni₅₀/SBA-15 approached as high as 0.839 mmol (188.4) g^-1. The excellent adsorption characteristics of the current adsorbents toward Car were preserved in a wide pH window and could be hardly infected by the concentration of the background salts. The pseudo-second-order rate equation effectively described the uptake kinetics. The Langmuir model exhibited a better fit to adsorption isotherm than the Freundlich model. Therefore, nickel immobilized carboxyl functionalized SBA-15 is an efficient method for recovering histidine-containing peptides from muscle slurry of egg-laying hens and makes them favorable candidates as chromatographic column materials for HCPs analysis.