Filter material and manufacturing method thereof

Abstract

A filter material and a manufacturing method thereof are provided. The manufacturing method includes hydrophilizing the filter material by supercritical fluid processing technology, so as to filter out white blood cells in the blood.

Claims

1. A treatment method of a filter material, comprising using supercritical carbon dioxide as a solvent and hydrophilizing the filter material by using a supercritical fluid processing technology, so as to filter out white blood cells in blood, wherein a process of hydrophilizing the filter material by using the supercritical fluid processing technology comprises: placing the filter material in a cylinder and adding a hydrophilic agent; pouring carbon dioxide gas into the cylinder, performing a heating reaction to the cylinder, and increasing a pressure of the cylinder; and lowering a temperature and the pressure of the cylinder after the heating reaction is over and taking out the filter material, wherein the hydrophilic agent is added in an amount of 0.1 wt % to 10 wt % based on a total weight of the filter material.

2. The treatment method of the filter material of claim 1, wherein the filter material comprises a polyester compound base material.

3. The treatment method of the filter material of claim 1, wherein a bath ratio obtained by a weight of the filter material divided by a volume of fluid in the cylinder is 0.01 to 1.

4. The treatment method of the filter material of claim 1, wherein the pressure of the cylinder is 70 bar to 500 bar when the heating reaction is performed.

5. The treatment method of the filter material of claim 1, wherein a temperature of the heating reaction is 60° C. to 150° C.

6. The treatment method of the filter material of claim 1, wherein heating reaction time is 30 minutes to 5 hours.

Description

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

(1) In the specification, scopes represented by “a numerical value to another numerical value” are schematic representations in order to avoid listing all of the numerical values in the scopes in the specification. Therefore, the recitation of a specific numerical range covers any numerical value in the numerical range and a smaller numerical range defined by any numerical value in the numerical range, as is the case with any numerical value and a smaller numerical range thereof in the specification.

(2) The disclosure provides a manufacturing method of a filter material, includes hydrophilizing the filter material by using supercritical fluid processing technology, so as to enable the blood to pass through a membrane material and to filter out white blood cells in the blood through selectivity (affinity) between the filter material and white blood cells. The manufacturing method of the filter material is described in detail as follows.

(3) In the disclosure, the process of hydrophilizing the filter material by supercritical fluid processing technology includes the following steps. The filter material is placed in a cylinder and a hydrophilic agent is added. Next, carbon dioxide gas is poured into the cylinder through a pressure relief valve, the cylinder is placed in a glycerol tank, and a heating reaction is then performed. At the same time, a pressure of the cylinder is increased. After the reaction is over, the cylinder is taken out from the glycerol tank, the pressure relief valve is opened for pressure relief to lower a temperature and the pressure of the cylinder, and the filter material is taken out.

(4) In the present embodiment, the hydrophilic agent may be added together with the filter material and may also be gradually added during the heating reaction process or during the process of pouring the carbon dioxide gas. In addition, the heating reaction may be performed when the carbon dioxide gas is poured or may be performed separately. As for the process of lowering the temperature and pressure of the cylinder, the temperature and pressure of the cylinder may be lowered at the same time or may be lowered separately.

(5) In the present embodiment, the filter material may include a polyester compound base material, and the polyester compound base material may include, for example, polybutylene terephthalate. The hydrophilic agent may include, for example, polyether ester. Nevertheless, the disclosure should not be construed as being limited thereto, and other conventional polyester compound base materials or hydrophilic agents may also be included. The hydrophilic agent is added in an amount of, for example, 0.1 wt % to 10 wt % based on a total weight of the filter material. A bath ratio obtained by a weight of the filter material divided by a volume of the cylinder is, for example, 0.01 to 1. The pressure of the cylinder is 70 bar to 500 bar when the heating reaction is performed, and an amount of carbon dioxide added can be controlled by pressure. A temperature of the heating reaction is, for example, 60° C. to 150° C., and heating reaction time is, for example, 30 minutes to 5 hours.

(6) The filter material provided by the disclosure is manufactured through the manufacturing method as described above. In the disclosure, supercritical carbon dioxide is mainly used as a solvent, and the filter material is hydrophilized through supercritical fluid processing technology to replace the grafting method or coating method of the prior art. Therefore, the problems of solvent recovery and wastewater treatment can be effectively solved. In addition, the supercritical fluid processing technology does not cause changes in fiber properties, which in turn enhances the effect of white blood cell filtration and shortens filtration time required by existing membrane materials.

(7) The filter material and the manufacturing method thereof provided in the foregoing embodiments are described in detailed through experimental examples provided below. However, the experimental examples below are not intended to limit the disclosure.

EXPERIMENTAL EXAMPLES

(8) The following experimental examples are provided to prove that the filter material manufactured by the manufacturing method provided by the disclosure exhibit a favorable property of filtering out white blood cells.

(9) Note that since detailed description of the manufacturing method of the filter material is provided in the foregoing, preparation of the filter material is not to be described in detail below to simplify the description.

Preparation of Filter Material

Example 1, Example 2, Example 3

(10) Conditions of supercritical fluid processing of Example 1, Example 2, and Example 3 are basically identical, and differences therebetween are conditions related to filtered blood samples and fluid flow velocities. The conditions of supercritical fluid processing of Example 1, Example 2, and Example 3 are provided as follows. A base material amount (bath ratio=base material weight/cylinder volume) is 0.27, an hydrophilic agent additive amount is 1%/to membrane material weight, the pressure of the cylinder is 285 bar, a reaction temperature is 120° C., and reaction time is 1.5 hours.

Comparative Example 1, Comparative Example 2, Comparative Example 3, Comparative Example 4

(11) Both the filter materials in Comparative Example 1 and Comparative Example 2 are manufactured through the conventional coating method. As regards the conditions of supercritical fluid processing of Comparative Example 3, except the hydrophilic agent additive amount which is 0.05%/to membrane material weight, the rest of the processing conditions of Comparative Example 3 are identical to those of Example 1, Example 2, and Example 3. As for the conditions of supercritical fluid processing of Comparative Example 4, except the reaction temperature which is 50° C., the rest of the processing conditions of Comparative Example 4 are identical to those of Example 1, Example 2, and Example 3.

(12) In Example 1, Example 2, and Example 3 and Comparative Example 1, Comparative Example 2, Comparative Example 3, and Comparative Example 4, white blood cells in the blood are filtered out, and the obtained experimental results are provided in the following Table 1. Based on the following Table 1, it can be seen that the filter material provided by the disclosure is capable of effectively filtering out white blood cells in the blood.

(13) TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Blood Sample Fluid Flowing Filtering Property of Conditions Conditions White Blood Cells Storage Filtering Flow Filtering Time Storage Time Velocity Property Residue Solvent in (hours) Condition (min) (ml/min) (log) (unit) Use Example 1 6 room 24 22.9 3.48 8.00 × 10.sup.5 CO.sub.2 temperature Example 2 6 room 36 13.2 3.63 2.00 × 10.sup.5 CO.sub.2 temperature Example 3 6 room 28 21 3.87 3.00 × 10.sup.5 CO.sub.2 temperature Comparative 6 room 16 25 3.95 2.00 × 10.sup.5 alcohol Example 1 temperature Comparative 6 room 21 25 3.92 2.00 × 10.sup.5 alcohol Example 2 temperature Comparative 6 room unable CO.sub.2 Example 3 temperature to filter Comparative 6 room unable CO.sub.2 Example 4 temperature to filter

(14) In view of the foregoing, the invention provides a filter material and a manufacturing method thereof configured to filter out white blood cells in the blood, in which supercritical carbon dioxide acts as the solvent, and the filter material is hydrophilized by using supercritical fluid processing technology to replace the conventional grafting method or coating method. Since the manufacturing method provided by the disclosure does not need to use a large amount of solvent (e.g., ethanol) to dissolve a hydrophilic monomer or a hydrophilic polymer, the problems of solvent recovery and wastewater treatment can be effectively solved. In addition, the effect of solid-vapor separation of a solute can be achieved immediately after vaporization of supercritical carbon dioxide, so that unreacted solutes may be recovered, carbon dioxide may further be fully recovered for reuse. In another aspect, supercritical fluid processing technology does not cause changes in fiber properties (e.g., fiber becomes thicker and a pore diameter of the filter material reduces), so that the filtering effect of white blood cells is enhanced and filtration time required by existing membrane materials is decreased.

(15) It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the disclosed embodiments without departing from the scope or spirit of the disclosure. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the disclosure covers modifications and variations provided that they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.