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##

A sparsely pillared organic-inorganic hybrid compound is provided. The sparsely pillared organic-inorganic hybrid compound includes: two inorganic material layers, each extending in one direction and facing each other; and an organic material layer disposed between the two inorganic material layers, wherein each of the inorganic material layers has a gibbsite structure in which a divalent metal cation is doped to an octahedral site, and the organic material layer includes a plurality of pillar portions, each of which is chemically bound to each of the two inorganic material layers such that the two inorganic material layers are connected to each other.

A method of treating wood chips to be used as a media for ameliorating oil spills on land or water involves heating in a mixture of petroleum wax and vegetable oil to remove moisture content and open the pores of the wood chip to allow the oil/wax blend to penetrate into the interior of the wood chips and subsequently grinding up the chips to a predetermined mesh size. The ground chips impregnated with wax/oil are then blended with magnetic iron ore concentrate and packaged/bagged for later distribution on an oil slick. The magnetic iron ore concentrate clings to the ground, oil/wax coated wood chips and facilitates retrieving the ground chips that have absorbed the spilled oil using a magnetic pick-up.

Magnetic and non-magnetic microparticle binding surfaces for the simple, cost-effective and automatable depletion of sample interferences within the assay blocking threshold and enrichment of biomarkers are provided, as are methods and compositions for their preparation and use. The binding surfaces may comprise non-magnetic, magnetic, paramagnetic, and superparamagnetic microparticles, or combinations thereof. The methods include methods for making microparticulate binding surfaces that consist of binders, binding partners, capture moieties, or combinations thereof for multi-functional sample depletion and enrichment. Specific examples employing antibodies or fragments thereof are provided, as well as streptavidin-coated microparticles and microparticles coupled with capture moieties such as immunoglobulins. Other examples couple ligands, enzymes, and proteins, or other biologicals, polymers and chemicals commonly used in the diagnostic test formulation or design. Further provided are binding surfaces consisting of a plurality of microparticles and methods for making them. Use of the methods and compositions in connection with the depletion and enrichment of a wide variety of interferences and biomarkers is provided, particularly for use in primary blood collection tubes, secondary transfer tubes and challenging sample types such as urine, saliva and stool.

Embodiments of the present disclosure describe functionalized polymeric membranes including one or more dithiol compounds that extend from a nanoparticle provided on or near a surface and/or pores of a polymer material, wherein at least one thiol of the dithiol compound binds to the nanoparticle and at least one thiol of the dithiol compound is a free thiol. Embodiments of the present disclosure further describe methods of separating and/or recovering a purified antibody comprising contacting a feed stream containing an antibody and other biomolecules with a functionalized polymeric membrane to separate the antibody from the feed stream; and applying a reducing agent to release the antibody from the membrane and recover a purified antibody; wherein the functionalized polymeric membrane includes a plurality of free thiols selective to binding the antibody.

Disclosed in certain embodiments are carbon dioxide sorbents that include porous particles impregnated with an amine compound.

The invention concerns methods of removing undesirable molecules from the blood or physiologic fluid; said method comprising contacting said blood or physiologic fluid with a sorbent, said sorbent comprising a plurality of solid forms and comprising a cross-linked polymeric material having a plurality of ligands attached to the surface of said cross-linked polymeric material, comprising (i) zwitterionic moieties, (ii) oligo(ethylene glycol) moieties or (iii) mixtures thereof; said contacting comprising said sorbent sorbing a plurality of said undesirable molecules when said sorbent is administered within a patient's body.

An object of the present invention is to provide a ligand-immobilized sea-island composite fiber in which generation of fine particles due to peeling of a sea component from an island component and generation of fine particles due to destruction of a fragile sea component are both suppressed. The present invention provides a sea-island composite fiber comprising a sea component and island components, in which a value (L/S) obtained by dividing the average total length (L) of the perimeter of all island components in a cross section perpendicular to the fiber axis by the average cross-sectional area (S) of the cross section is from 1.0 to 50.0 μm.sup.−1, a distance from the surface to the outermost island component is 1.9 μm or less, and an amino group-containing compound is covalently bonded to a polymer constituting the sea component at a charge density of 0.1 μmol or more and less than 500 μmol per 1 gram dry weight.

Polyamines with lengths carefully tailored to the framework dimensions are appended to metal-organic frameworks such as Mg.sub.2(dobpdc) (dobpdc4-=4,4′-dioxidobiphenyl-3,3′-dicarboxylate) with the desired loading of one polyamine per two metal sites. The polyamine-appended materials show step-shaped adsorption and desorption profiles due to a cooperative CO.sub.2 adsorption/desorption mechanism. Several disclosed polyamine-appended materials exhibit strong ability to capture CO.sub.2 from various compositions. Increased stability of amines in the framework has been achieved using high molecular weight polyamine molecules that coordinate multiple metal sites in the framework. The preparation of these adsorbents as well as their characterization are provided.

In one embodiment, the invention relates to a carbon-based boron removal medium with hydroxyl groups and amine group, and in particular, to a method for forming the carbon-based boron removal medium. In a specific embodiment, nitrogen-doped (“N-doped”) graphene oxide is synthesized by a simple two-step process: (1) oxidation of graphite to graphene oxide, and (2) nitrogen-doping (“N-doping”) the graphene oxide to form the amine group. The resultant N-doped graphene oxide can efficiently remove boron from aqueous solutions. In another embodiment, a method of sensing or detecting the presence of boron in an aqueous solution by using a boron sensing medium comprises at least two hydroxyl groups and at least one pyridinic nitrogen or pyrrolic nitrogen or quaternary nitrogen (i.e. pyridoxine, in particular vitamin B6). The boron ions in the solution would form a highly ionized complex, which can cause significant increase in electrical conductivity of the solution, which can then be used to measure the concentration of boron in said solution.