SBIR Phase II: Anti-fouling surface modifications for purification membranes

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）二期项目将解决生物制药加工中膜污染的挑战。这种涂层的成功应用将增加膜的寿命和各种生产流程的产品产量，因为更少的有价值的化合物被困在膜中。这可以提高救命药物的生产能力，降低生产成本，并在某些情况下实现连续的生物制药生产。此外，目前膜的功能化涉及大量对环境有害的溶剂，这些溶剂在膜的使用过程中可能会被浸出。在目前的项目中，通过使用不需要任何溶剂的初始化学气相沉积（iCVD）工艺，避免了这个问题。这种涂层技术也可以扩展到其他系统，包括废水净化、食品和饮料生产、工业分离和依赖类似功能化的医疗设备。第二阶段的目标是展示一种商业上可行的制造工艺，利用iCVD工艺在多孔膜内进行表面改性。在这方面的先前工作主要集中在反渗透膜的顶部表面上的涂层，但是所使用的化学物质从未在膜过滤器的内部结构中得到证实。在第二阶段的工作中，涂层的性能将通过使用现有的沉积设备来优化涂层的化学性质和工艺条件，通过最大限度地减少蛋白质污染来最大化通量和吞吐量。这项工作的另一个主要技术目标是将目前的批量工艺转化为适合大规模生产的连续卷对卷工艺。这项研究的结果将是一种在膜应用中有效和持久的涂层化学，以及一种能够在当前膜制造标准下实施的优化制造工艺。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will address the challenge of fouling on membranes used in biopharmaceutical processing. The successful application of this coating would enable increase in the membrane lifetime and product yield of various production streams as less of the valuable compounds remain trapped in the membrane. This can increase production capacity for life-saving medicines, reduce production costs and, in certain cases, enable continuous biopharmaceutical manufacturing. Furthermore, functionalization of membranes currently involve significant quantities of environmentally harmful solvents, which may be leachable during usage of the membrane. This issue is avoided in the current project by utilizing initiated chemical vapor deposition (iCVD) process which does not require any solvent. This coating technology can also be extended to other systems including wastewater purification, food & beverage production, industrial separations, and medical devices that rely on a similar functionalization.The objective of Phase II will be to demonstrate a commercially viable manufacturing process to produce surface modifications within porous membranes using the iCVD process. Previous work in this subject has focused on top-coats on the top surfaces of reverse osmosis membranes, but the chemistries utilized have never before been demonstrated within interior structures of the membrane filters. During the Phase II work, the performance of the coatings will be optimized by using existing deposition equipment to tune the coating chemistry and process conditions to maximize the flux and throughput by minimizing protein fouling. The other main technical goal of the work will be to translate the current batch process into a continuous roll-to-roll process that is amenable to large-scale manufacturing. The outcome of this study will be a proven coating chemistry that is effective and durable in the membrane application, and an optimized manufacturing process capable of being implemented within current standards of membrane manufacturing.