Characterization of membrane materials and membrane coatings for bioreactor units of bioartificial kidneys.

The bioreactor unit of bioartificial kidneys contains porous membranes seeded with renal cells. For clinical applications, it is mandatory that human primary renal proximal tubule cells (HPTCs) form differentiated epithelia on the membranes. Here, we show that HPTCs do not grow and survive on a variety of polymeric membrane materials.

The zwitterion effect in proton exchange membranes as synthesised by polymerisation of bicontinuous microemulsions.

The bicontinuous microemulsions consisting of a polymerisable zwitterionic surfactant 3-((11-acryloyloxyundecyl)imidazolyl) propyl sulfonate (AIPS) and other monomers can be cross-polymerised to form good proton conductive membranes.

Nanoparticles of polystyrene latexes by semicontinuous microemulsion polymerization using mixed surfactants.

Nanosized polystyrene (PS) latexes stabilized by the mixture of cationic/cationic, anionic/anionic, or anionic/cationic surfactants of various types with high weight ratios of PS to surfactant (ca. 10:1) have been successfully synthesized by a semicontinuous microemulsion polymerization process. For cationic or anionic systems, spherical latex particles with a weight-averaged diameter (Dw) ranging from about 22 to 53 nm were nearly linearly dependent on the weight ratio of the mixed surfactants with similar charges.