A novel application, utilizing polyacrylamide-g-carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC-g-PAM) in concentrating dilute solutions of Bovine serum albumin (BSA), was investigated. The grafting reaction parameters were investigated and the hydrogel smartness was verified. FT-IR proved that the grafting reaction occurred between the hydroxyl group located in anhydroglucose C 2 position of CMC and the p-bond of PAM and SEM confirmed a changed morphology to a fibrillar structure. The pH sensitivity was proved; as the grafted polymer attained its maximum swelling at pH 7.2 while the minimum swelling was observed under acidic conditions (pH 1-3). The rate of water uptake in the grafted polymer hydrogel was higher than that of the homopolymer hydrogel and the swelling behaviors of both hydrogels obeyed second-order kinetics.The tested hydrogel showed a high potency towards concentrating BSA solutions with a concentration factor of 1 to 4.5 times and recovery of 60-90%. The concentration factor increased linearly with increasing both the polymer concentration and the process time and decreased with the increase in the protein concentration. The grafted polymer had stable efficiency in the concentration process for 20 cycles. The obtained results have recommended the employment of the prepared CMC-g-PAM hydrogel in the down stream protein concentration process in the industrial scale.
Silver nanoparticles were synthesized and stabilized using the hydrogel template method. The synthesized hydrogels were composed of acrylamide and styrene sulfonic acid sodium salt monomers with different molar ratios. The copolymer with the highest ionic monomer content was interpenetrated with different chitosan concentrations. The main goal of this study was to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of the prepared hydrogels. The formation of silver nanoparticles within the swollen hydrogel was mainly due to an ion exchange process via the sulfonate and amino groups of the hydrogels. The surface morphology showed a uniform distribution of silver nanoparticles throughout the hydrogel structure. These nanoparticles had face-centered-cubic unit cell structure and dimensions less than 70 nm, as determined by X-ray and UV-visible spectroscopy, respectively. To investigate the antimicrobial activities of the prepared composites, their inhibitory effect was evaluated against bacteria, fungi, and yeasts. Increasing the ionic monomer and chitosan content enhanced both the swelling properties and the antimicrobial activities of these composites. The results clarified that the most sensitive strain was Bacillus subtilis.
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