Superparamagnetic poly(styrene-divinylbenzene-glycidyl methacrylate) (Pst-DVB-GMA) microparticles were prepared via a modified suspension polymerization process. A magnetic fluid was first prepared by a chemical co-precipitation method. Then magnetic microparticles were produced by mixing the monomers and the magnetic fluid with water in the presence of a stabilizer poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) to form a suspension, and finally benzoyl peroxide was added to initiate the co-polymerization. The morphology and magnetic properties of the microparticles were examined by TEM and VSM. The spherically shaped microparticles, with a size range of 4 to 7 μm, showed distinct superparamagnetic characteristics. XRD was used to investigate the structure of the magnetite particles dispersed in the polymer matrix. The microparticles with epoxy groups on their surface can be applied directly to the separation of biomolecules.
Rhodococcus erythropolis LSSE8-1 is a newly isolated biodesulfurizaion strain from the soil of Chishui gas field, Guizhou Province, China. The analysis of its metabo-lism product shows that the strain is a kind of biocatalyst able to oxidize dibenzothiophene (DBT) to 2-hydroxydi- phenyl (HBP), and therefore the sulfur in DBT is selectively removed. By using DBTO2 (dibenzothiophene 5,5-dioxide) as substrate, both DBT and HBP are found in the culture, which shows that the reaction from DBT to DBTO2 is re-versible in the cell. While using 0.5 mmol/L DBT as control, 0.01—0.4 mmol/L DBTO2 shows poisonous effect to the cell, which will explain why there is no DBTO2 accumulation in the process of biodesulfurization. After treatment by lysozme, the plasmid DNA of the strain is isolated by alkaline method to be used as the template of PCR reaction. Three dsz gene fragments of 1.3, 1.0 and 1.2 kb respectively were amplified. Each fragment is ligate with PGEM-T vector, and cloned into E. coli. DH5. The clone DNA is sequenced and the result shows that dsz related genes are highly conservative. The identities of dszA and dszB with respect to IGTS8 are 100%, and the identity of dszC with that of IGTS8 is 99%.
GOU Zhongxuan, LUO Mingfang, LI Xin, XING Jianmin & LIU Huizhou Laboratory of Separation Science and Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Biochemical Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080, China Correspondence should be addressed to Liu Huizhou (e-mail: hzliu@ home.ipe.ac.cn)
Magnetic separation technology was applied in the separation of flavonoids from the licorice root in this work. Licorice flavonoids (LF) displayed a remarkable array of biological and pharmacological activities. The magnetic adsorbents with functional -NH2 groups were synthesized by immobilization of amino-silane on the surface of the magnetic silica supports, which were prepared by co-precipitation method. The adsorption and desorption characteristics of the magnetic adsorbents for the separation of LF have been evaluated. The purity of an enriched extract with this method was 16.7% while the crude extract only had about 6.8% purity. Therefore, it can be concluded that these kinds of magnetic adsorbents have selectivity to the flavonoids to some extent. The affinity selectivity of the adsorbents is based on the formation of hydrogen bonding between the -NH2 on the magnetic adsorbents and -OH,-CO on the flavonoids.
