Provided is a stationary phase for supercritical fluid chromatography, the stationary phase having satisfactory molecule-identifying ability, in particular, satisfactory separating properties with respect to not only acidic compounds or basic compounds but also fused aromatic compounds or aromatic isomers. The stationary phase for supercritical fluid chromatography includes a support having, bonded thereto, a polymer in which the main chain has nitrogenous aromatic rings in the repeating units.

The present invention provides a functionalised polymeric chromatography medium, prepared by a process which comprises (i) providing a substrate formed of one or more polymer nanofibres, (ii) grafting one or more neutral polymer chains from the substrate, and (iii) contacting the grafted product with a reagent which functionalises the product of step (ii) as a chromatography medium, wherein step (ii) comprises reacting a plurality of compounds of formula and/or its enantiomers, and/or its derivatives of formula (I) and/or enantiomers and/or diastereomers thereof: with one or more functional groups present on the nanofibre substrate, wherein R.sub.1, R.sub.2, R.sub.3, R.sub.4 and R.sub.5 may be the same or different, and are chosen from H, halogen, C.sub.1-C.sub.4 alkyl, or C.sub.1-C.sub.4 alkoxy provided that at least one of R.sub.1, R.sub.2, R.sub.3, R.sub.4 or R.sub.5 is not hydrogen. ##STR00001##

The present invention provides a degradable microbead comprising a polymer molecule crosslinked by a crosslinking agent, wherein the polymer molecule and/or the crosslinking agent comprises a sensitive chemical bond that is cleavable through a chemical and/or light treatment, thereby resulting in the degradation of the degradable microbead. The present invention also provides a method of separating a target protein from a sample. By using the degradation of the degradable microbead to replace an elution step in protein purification, it is possible to select a combination of target protein and affinity ligand with a stronger affinity, thereby improving the protein purification efficiency. The method is especially suitable for the high-throughput preparation of multiple protein samples, for example providing a protein sample for electron microscope observation or mass spectrometry measurement.

Provided is a stationary phase for chromatography, the stationary phase being made of inorganic carrier particles to which is bonded a polymer having a hydrophilic group on repeating units of a main chain thereof, and being produced by a particular production method.

A packing material for ion chromatography has a structure in which a polyethyleneimine is bonded, directly or through a spacer, to a surface of an organic porous substrate constituted of a hydroxylated crosslinked copolymer, and a functional group represented by formula (1)

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(wherein the symbols are as described in the description) is bonded to a nitrogen atom derived from the polyethyleneimine. The invention further relates to a production method of the packing material for ion chromatography and a column for ion chromatography. A packing material is provided for a column which exhibits a high separating performance in anion chromatography employing a hydroxide-based eluent, and a production method thereof is also provided.

The invention relates to poly-amide bonded hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC) stationary phases and novel HILIC methods for use in the characterization of large biological molecules modified with polar groups, known to those skilled in the art as glycans. The invention particularly provides novel, poly-amide bonded materials designed for efficient separation of large biomolecules, e.g. materials having a large percentage of larger pores (i.e. wide pores). Furthermore, the invention advantageously provides novel HILIC methods that can be used in combination with the stationary phase materials described herein to effectively separate protein and peptide glycoforms by eliminating previously unsolved problems, such as on-column aggregation of protein samples, low sensitivity of chromatographic detection of the glycan moieties, and low resolution of peaks due to restricted pore diffusion and long intra/inter-particle diffusion distances.

The present invention provides an improved sorbent and corresponding device(s) and uses thereof for the capture and stabilization of volatile organic compounds (VOC) or semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOC) from a gaseous atmosphere. The sorbent is capable of rapid and high uptake of one or more compounds and provides quantitative release (recovery) of the compound(s) when exposed to elevated temperature and/or organic solvent. Uses of particular improved grades of mesoporous silica are disclosed.

The present invention aims to provide a fucose-binding protein that shows improved productivity in cases of expression in a host such as Escherichia coli, improved binding affinity to a fucose-containing sugar chain such as a sugar chain containing a structure composed of Fucα1-2Galβ1-3GlcNAc and/or Fucα1-2Galβ1-3GalNAc, and/or improved thermal stability. The above object is achieved by deleting a plurality of amino acid residues in the C-terminal side of the amino acid sequence of the fucose-binding protein BC2LCN of SEQ ID NO: 1, and, when necessary, substituting the glycine residue at position 36 in SEQ ID NO: 1 with a cysteine residue, substituting the glutamine residue at position 39 in SEQ ID NO: 1 with a leucine residue or methionine residue, substituting the glutamine residue at position 65 in SEQ ID NO: 1 with a leucine residue, substituting the cysteine residue at position 72 in SEQ ID NO: 1 with a glycine residue or alanine residue, substituting the glutamic acid residue at position 81 in SEQ ID NO: 1 with a cysteine residue, glutamine residue, histidine residue, or methionine residue, and/or substituting the glycine residue identified as the residue at position 36 in SEQ ID NO: 1 with a cysteine residue.

A platform and system for concentration, reduction and regeneration of heavy metals and other contaminants from fluids is provided. The platform has a three-tiered hierarchical porous structure, composed of micropores formed by woven carbon cloth, nanopores formed after carbon nanotube growth on the cloth fibers and mesopores formed by a polymer outer layer. The material of the platform can be incorporated into cells with two electrodes with properly functionalized PDAN grafted 3D carbon as an anode and cathode respectively. Metal ions and toxic anions in water will be captured selectively by primary amine, secondary amine and quaternary amine groups in porous PDAN on the anode. Metals are captured and reduced by the cathode.

The present invention discloses a near-infrared regenerative intelligent fiber-based adsorptive material and a preparation method and use thereof. The material is obtained by chemically grafting a stepwise dual-temperature stimuli-responsive polyethyleneimine onto a carboxylated cellulose nanofiber matrix to prepare a stepwise dual-temperature stimuli-responsive intelligent nanofiber, and combining the stepwise dual-temperature stimuli-responsive intelligent nanofiber with a photosensitizer having near-infrared stimuli-response to prepare a stepwise dual-temperature/near-infrared stimuli-responsive intelligent nanofiber, and then by using a crosslinking agent to directly crosslink and combine the stepwise dual-temperature/near-infrared stimuli-responsive intelligent nanofiber with a hyperbranched polyamine in one step. The material has a stepwise dual-temperature/near-infrared stimuli-response, high density of amino group (greater than 14 mmol/g), and nano cavities.