Alcohol fuel can be noticed as a clean alternative energy source of petroleum from viewpoints of a steep rise in crude oil prices and conservation of global environment. Actual situations and subjects of polymer membranes applied to a technology for separation of aqueous alcohol solutions produced by bio-fermentation of biomass such as cellulose and starch are described. Furthermore, a possibility of practical use of alcohol concentration based on membrane separation technique is prospected.
This review article surveys the recent research and development of membrane-based gas separation which appear to be a promising candidate for energy-saving and environmentally-benign separation process. Gas separation properties based on structureproperty relationship are summarized and recent attempts to create a molecular sieving membrane to improve membrane performance are described.
Optical resolution membranes can separate mixtures of both enantiomers. The study is very challenging and fundamental and also applicable for production of medicine.
Molecular imprinting has been extensively studied as a rational method of synthesizing artificial receptors that can specifically recognize target molecules. In this article, recent advances and development in molecular imprinting are described for creating the artificial receptors with functional features of polymeric materials, as well as the strategy of rational designs.
The “concentrated polymer brush” is a system of polymer chains extremely densely end-grafted on a solid surface. It exhibits a number of unique properties and functions arising from the highly extended/oriented conformation of the graft chains and the high osmotic pressure of the brush phase, of which the function of separation was highlighted below.
We have obtained a composite hollow fiber membrane with a gas permselective intermediate thin layer of a ternary polymer blend by conjugate melt-spinning and stretching process. We have found the morphology of the thin layer is bi-continuous, network structure of SEBS phase and EEA-EPP mixture phase.
Membrane technology for plasma separation has been developed in recent years. This review provides some points for manufacturing ripped porous membrane by stretching.
Polysaccharide-based chiral stationary phases (CSP) show high chiral discrimination ability for a wide range of racemic compounds. Recently we developed 3 types of immobilized CSPs.
Synthesized copolymers consisting of photo-isomerizable spiropyran and comonomers with hydrophillic groups have shown photo-induced reversible metal complexation in water. We also have prepared a trial model, “C&R checker, ” for practical use.
Stem cells, such as embryonic stem (ES) cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, are an attractive cell source for regenerative medicine. For medical use of stem cells, many technologies need to be developed by both biological and engineering approaches. Design of substrates for stem cell culture is one of the important issues in the stem cell research. In this article, we review recent progress in materials research associated with stem cell research.