Capillary Channeled Polymer Structures and Chemistries for High Throughput Measurement of Large Molecules

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This project is funded by the Chemical Measurement and Imaging Program of the Chemistry Division at the National Science Foundation. Professor R. Kenneth Marcus and collaborators at Clemson University are developing and characterizing capillary-channeled polymer (C-CP) fibers as stationary phases for rapid processing of synthetic and large biological molecules. These stationary phases are amenable to a wide range of instrumentation formats and offer advantages for the separation of mixtures. The goal of the studies is to produce efficient and selective separations in an economical manner. This work is interdisciplinary, involving collaborative efforts between research groups in chemistry, bioengineering, mathematical and materials sciences. The project includes investigators affiliated with the Clemson University Center for Advanced Engineering of Fibers and Films. There are also collaborations with federal laboratories. If successful, the project may result in new commercial ventures in the textile and biopharmaceutical industries in South Carolina. Enhanced capabilities for large molecule separations have implications across many commercial sectors, including the rapidly expanding area of protein therapeutics. A two-pronged approach is used to better affect macromolecule separations using the C-CP fiber phases. The first area focuses on the novel implementation of the fibers as the stationary phases for dimension two of comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatographic separations. C-CP phases of various surface chemistries are evaluated in terms of the cycling times required to affect high quality separations of temporal "cuts" obtained from the first dimension. The second area focuses on modification of surface chemistries to affect high levels of selectivity. There are four classes of reactions: further use of lipid tethered ligands as a general reaction methodology to modify hydrophobic surfaces, high density amination of polyester base fibers, microwave energy to affect covalent coupling of ligands to nylon 6 C-CP materials, and finally the adsorption of macromolecule ligands on polypropylene surface for class-specific separation. These chemistries are used to develop stand-alone columns (on either the analytical or preparative scales) as well as columns for use as dimension two in multidimensional applications.