Chan, Yi Wei (2017) The development of an innovative thermal mixing technique for the fabrication of large scale polymethacrylate monoliths. Masters thesis, Universiti Malaysia Sabah.
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Abstract
The upsurge of monolith technology has redefined the limit of bioseparation sciences that was previously established by packed-bed column. Polymethacrylate monolith features large pores that are interlinked and give form to continuous pore channels which enable mass transport to transpire under convection manner. To date, there have been many successful attempts in the application of monolith for biomolecules separation using small-scale monoliths. However, the production and application of large-scale monoliths have not received much attention due to challenges pertaining to thermal escalation and wall channeling. The objective of this project is to investigate and elucidate the hurdles in monolith up-scaling and come out with possible solutions to overturn the persisting challenges. In regards to this, polymethacrylate monolith was fabricated through thermal-initiated free radical polymerization for subsequent analysis. A novel strategy involving the use of SEM on partitioned monolith coupled with temperature profiling and pore size distribution modality curves was used to determine the effect of porogen content (%) and thermal expansion on the pore morphology of varied scales of monoliths. Moreover, the effect of mold internal dimension on the magnitude of heat build-up was investigated by fabricating 70 % porogen-containing monoliths in columns that comes with various dimensions. The results showed that pore morphology differs with different monomer concentrations while the intensity of thermal build-up is inversely proportional to the porogen content (%). Also, the homogeneity of monoliths was observed to be directly proportional to porogen content (%) and inversely proportional to thermal build-up. The column internal diameter (i.d) analysis revealed that thermal escalation ceased beyond 8 cm i.d monolith while the changes of pore morphology and uniformity remained unchanged from 5 cm i.d onwards. However, the increased column diameter resulted in poorer heat transfer and was clearly illustrated by the large peak width of 17.0 cm i.d. The effect of thermal build-up on pore morphology and homogeneity was attributed to fixated differences in porogen content (% ). In conclusion, the significant disparity of pore size distribution profile of various sections was not observed albeit improvement was recognized with reduced heat accumulation. Based on the preliminary studies conducted, thermal minimization method was devised as the countermeasure to reduce the heat escalation. The effectiveness of thermal mixing strategy was validated by successful fabrication of an intact monolith under 70 % porogen content, 5 cm i.d and 150 ml with negligible heat build-up. To improve on its applicable column size range, monolith reactor was designed and built which involved channeling water intermittently in between hot and cold water in accordance with the temperature of core region. In addition, three loop controllers were designed and put into test via fabrication of 17 .0 cm i.d, 3. 9 L monolith by using the reactor. The results have revealed the 3rd loop variant as the most optimal controller by managing to fabricate an intact 17 .0 cm i.d monolith up to 3. 9 L whereby the highest T max recorded was 74.63 °C as compared to 124.95 °C and 122.28 °C achieved by the other two controllers respectively. The success of this method will pave the way for the future through which mass production of therapeutic drugs with monolith of liter scale is practically feasible.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Masters) |
|---|---|
| Keyword: | Monolith scale-up, Polymethacrylate monolith, Thermal polymerization, Pore morphology, Thermal regulation, Bioseparation, Reactor design |
| Subjects: | Q Science > QD Chemistry > QD1-999 Chemistry > QD241-441 Organic chemistry |
| Department: | INSTITUTE > Biotechnology Research Institute (BRI) |
| Depositing User: | DG MASNIAH AHMAD - |
| Date Deposited: | 11 Jun 2025 16:03 |
| Last Modified: | 11 Jun 2025 16:03 |
| URI: | https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/44114 |
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