Lüken Arne, Bruckhaus Maike, Kosfeld Udo, Emondts Meike, Wessling Matthias
RWTH Aachen University, AVT.CVT - Chair of Chemical Process Engineering, Forckenbeckstraße. 51, 52074 Aachen, Germany.
RWTH Aachen University, AVT.BioVT - Chair of Biochemical Engineering, Forckenbeckstraße. 51, 52074 Aachen, Germany.
HardwareX. 2021 May 11;10:e00200. doi: 10.1016/j.ohx.2021.e00200. eCollection 2021 Oct.
Tangential flow filtration (TFF) is a chemical unit operation used to purify and concentrate liquid suspensions of colloids, proteins, or cells. The solution flows tangentially across a membrane, such that a selective part of the fluid permeates the membrane while the filtrated matter is retained, increasing its concentration. TFF is a mild mechanical purification method that does not interact chemically with the filtrate. It is applied in sensitive separation tasks in protein chemistry, microbiology, or immunology. It is a fast alternative for dialysis applications, also applicable in the field of colloid purification. However, the costs of automated lab-scale devices (30,000 €) and the consumable membrane modules (100-600 €) make TFF currently hardly accessible for lab-scale polymer researchers. Therefore, we built a low-cost TFF system (2400 €) partly automated by an Arduino microcontroller and optimized for diafiltration buffer exchange and concentration processes in soft matter colloid research. We use medical hemodialysis membrane modules that only cost a share (20-50 €) of alternative TFF modules, and we demonstrate the functionality of the system for an exemplary colloidal microgel purification process.
切向流过滤（TFF）是一种化学单元操作，用于纯化和浓缩胶体、蛋白质或细胞的液体悬浮液。溶液沿切线方向流过膜，使得流体的选择性部分透过膜，而过滤物被保留，从而提高其浓度。TFF是一种温和的机械纯化方法，不会与滤液发生化学反应。它应用于蛋白质化学、微生物学或免疫学中的敏感分离任务。它是透析应用的一种快速替代方法，也适用于胶体纯化领域。然而，自动化实验室规模设备（30,000欧元）和消耗性膜组件（100 - 600欧元）的成本使得TFF目前对于实验室规模的聚合物研究人员来说几乎无法使用。因此，我们构建了一个低成本的TFF系统（2400欧元），该系统部分由Arduino微控制器自动化，并针对软物质胶体研究中的透析缓冲液交换和浓缩过程进行了优化。我们使用的医用血液透析膜组件成本仅为替代TFF组件的一部分（20 - 50欧元），并且我们展示了该系统在示例性胶体微凝胶纯化过程中的功能。
