Separation of Colloidal Particle Using Elastic-Gel-Packed Column

Abstract

Polymerized spherical gel (46 μm) was packed in a column to permeate silica particle suspension for the separation due to their differences of sizes. The elastic gel in the bottom domain of column deformed more because the pressure of the fluid flow suppressed the packed gel layer, that is, the formed gaps among the gels at the bottom domain had the smaller ‘pore’, resulting in filtering the smaller-size of the particles at the bottom of the column. The larger the size of silica particle, the upper the filtered domain in the column. To elute the filtered silica particle, the gel layer was compacted and restored by on-off of the fluid flow, to open the gaps in the gel layer repeatedly, demonstrating that the elution percentage of silica particle was gradually increased by the repeated on-off permeation of water.