Initial Stirred Cell Results for Benchmarking
Introduction:
At the last meeting, I introduced the new stirred cell device acquired in Tom’s lab (here). I have expanded the study to observe changes in flux and concentration for each of the membranes used.
Experiments:
Each of the experiments was run with BSA having an initial concentration of 1mg/mL, this concentration is determined using spectrophotometry and the relation between absorbance and concentration. All following concentrations were determined the same way. The stirred cell is pressurized to between 4 and 6 psi and the stir plate is set to ~600rpm. These stirred cell conditions were copied from Zydney’s work on stirred cells and flux. All solutions were filtered with a 0.2um filter previous to use in the system.
Three experiments in total were run, the first two with 100kDa Polyethersulfone (PES), but new membranes for each experiment, and the third with 100kDa Regenerated Cellulose (RC).
Data:
Combined Data
- Full data is data taken from the entire length of each experiment
- Time comparable data is data reduced to that of the shortest experiment time (20 min, 14 min, 20 min)
- Calculated flux using 21mm diameter (usable area)
| Membrane Type | Flux | Concentration |
| 100 kDa PES |  |
 |
| 100 kDa PES |  |
 |
| 100 kDa RC |  |
 |
Conclusions/Next Steps:
For the stirred cell I plan on next testing the lift off membranes within the device. As well as re-run each of these experiments to create more robust data.