Flocculation is an important part of the carbon cycle. It is therefore crucial to understand how flocculation is regulated and how different environmental factors impact. A dilemma is that it has been found difficult to measure flocculation experimentally. In this thesis, flocculation of dissolved organic carbon in a Swedish lake was measured in a series of laboratory experiments. The method used was Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS). DLS is used to determine the size distribution profile of, for instance, small particles in suspension. DLS measures Brownian motion and relates it to the particle size by measuring the fluctuation in scattering intensity. It is not very effective to measure the frequency spectrum contained in the intensity fluctuations directly, so instead, a digital auto correlator is used. Since factors such as pH, salinity and calcium chloride content varies in lakes and is thought to have an impact on flocculation, this was investigated as well. As pH was changed in a range of 3 to 9, small changes in size distribution could be detected. Salinity and calcium chloride content have quite an impact on flocculation. Time also has a great impact, samples that were set to rest for a week showed a significant increase in particle size. For DLS to work, the samples need to be filtered of centrifuged to get rid of large particles. Different types of filters were tested to see which filter material was the best to use. When filtering the water we only want to filter out the large particles. Natural organic matter has a hydrophobic component which adsorbs to some filter types but not to others. It is crucial to know which filters this hydrophobic component adsorbs to, so that the loss of dissolved organic carbon during filtration can be minimalized.

Protein aggregation is a phenomenon that plays a major role in protein crystallization and in protein formulation. In protein crystallization, aggregation is the prerequisite step; however, in protein formulation it has to be suppressed to assure therapeutic efficiency of the product. Light scattering techniques are the most promising methods to study the hydrodynamic properties of macromolecular solutions, which directly measures protein aggregation. Unfortunately, the normal dynamic light scattering technique is regarded as expensive because of the amount of protein used for these experiments. In order to address this problem, a scale down dynamic light scattering device has been designed. The osmotic second virial coefficient, a dilute solution parameter helps in identifying solution conditions for protein crystal growth. The second part of this thesis involves comparison of osmotic second virial coefficient (B) measurements of lysozyme using laser light scattering techniques with B measurements of lysozyme performed using self-interaction chromatography (SIC).

Keratin is a biomaterial derived from biological sources and can be used in a variety of medical applications. This study focuses on keratin derived from human hair. Unfortunately, there is not a lot of information in the literature describing how keratin reacts to subtle changes in an aqueous solution such as differences in pH, keratin concentration, buffer concentration, salt concentration, and temperature. To have a better understanding of this effect, dynamic light scattering was used to test the size ranges and volume percentages in each range. Dynamic light scattering shows the size of the keratin in each environment and its consistency with time. The results showed that there is a difference in keratin behavior between water and buffer solutions, but very subtle differences between each buffer, buffer concentration, keratin concentration, pH and temperature. Keratins aggregate extensively in un-buffered conditions (i.e. pure water), which has implications to both purification and fabrication of biomaterials as water is used extensively in these processes. Interestingly, there was little effect of keratin concentration, pH, and temperature on the buffers used in this study, suggesting there may be a wide range of conditions in which aggregation can be minimized. / Master of Science

No description available.

Yes / The aim of this work was to investigate the possibility of covalent cross-linker-free, polyelectrolyte complex formation at the nanoscale between alginic acid (as sodium alginate, ALG) and protamine (PROT). Optimisation of the self-assembly conditions was performed by varying the type of polymer used, pH of component solutions, mass mixing ratio of the components and the speed and order of component addition on the properties of complexes. Homogenous particles with nanometric sizes resulted when an aqueous dispersion of ALG was rapidly mixed with a solution of PROT. The polyelectrolyte complex between ALG and PROT was confirmed by infrared spectroscopy. To facilitate incorporation of drugs soluble at low pH, pH of ALG dispersion was decreased to 2; however, no nanoparticles (NPs) were formed upon complexation with PROT. Adjusting pH of PROT solution to 3 resulted in the formation of cationic or anionic NPs with a size range 70–300 nm. Colloidal stability of selected alginic acid low/PROT formulations was determined upon storage at room temperature and in liquid media at various pH. Physical stability of NPs correlated with the initial surface charge of particles and was time- and pH-dependent. Generally, better stability was observed for anionic NPs stored as native dispersions and in liquids covering a range of pH. / This study was funded by Merrion Pharmaceuticals Ireland. This work was also supported by the Synthesis and Solid State Pharmaceutical Centre funded by the Science Foundation Ireland under grant number 12/RC/2275.

No description available.

A técnica de Espalhamento Dinâmico de Luz (do inglês Dynamic Light Scattering, ou DLS), também conhecida por técnica de Espectroscopia por Correlação de Fótons (do inglês Photon Correlation Spectroscopy, ou PCS), é amplamente utilizada na caraterização estrutural de sistemas coloidais, fornecendo informações importantes sobre tamanhos ca- ractersticos, tempos de correlação e efeitos de polarização no sistema. A facilidade de execução dos experimentos e praticidade das análises é uma das principais vantagens desta técnica. Especificamente para sistemas diludos compostos por partculas em solução, ela pode fornecer informações diretas sobre o raio hidrodinâmico das partculas do meio. No entanto, a obtenção desse parâmetro requer a utilização de métodos de ajuste e análise dos dados experimentais que assumem diversas caractersticas do sistema e possuem li- mitações intrnsecas devido à própria resolução do método frente presença de partculas de variados tamanhos e concentrações, polidispersões contnuas de tamanho, entre vários outros fatores. Existem casos, por exemplo, onde o mesmo conjunto experimental pode ser descrito por dois modelos diferentes. Neste projeto, é proposto um estudo sistemático das limitações dos métodos de análise frente a dados simulados e experimentais, de modo a permitir a aplicabilidade destes métodos a vários tipos de sistemas. Serão investigados casos de sistemas monodispersos e polidispersos, monomodais e multimodais, através da geração de dados simulados que mimetizem a presença desses grupos de partculas, em di- ferentes proporções e polidispersões. Como resultado, teremos indicações da precisão com que estes métodos de modelagem conseguem reproduzir os valores inseridos na simulação. Além disso, experimentos reais serão realizados utilizando amostras padrão de modo a aplicar os métodos de análise a estes dados bem como contrapor os resultados obtidos pelas simulações e pelos dados experimentais. / The Dynamic Light Scattering technique, also known as Photon Correlation Spectros- copy, is widely used for the structural characterization for colloidal systems, providing important information on characteristic length scales, correlation times and polarization effects. The relative simple experimental setup and easy-to-use modeling methods are one of the main advantages of this technique. Specifically for diluted systems of particles in solution, one can obtain direct information on the hydrodynamic for the particles in the system. However, in order to retrieve this parameter it is necessary to use modeling and analysis methods for the experimental methods which assumes intrinsic characteristics on the system and have intrinsic limitations due to the resolution of the method when particles with several sizes, concentrations, etc. In several cases, the same experimental data can be described by several different models. In this project it is proposed a systematic study on the limitations on the analysis methods upon simulated and experimental data in order to investigate the applicability of these methods for several system types. Monodisperse and polydisperse systems are investigated, either composed by one type of particles (monomo- dal) or several types of particles (multimodal). As a result, one can obtain indications on the accuracy that the modeling methods can reproduce the simulated parameters. Finally, real experiments were performed using standard samples in order to test the modeling methods and to calibrate the simulation procedures.

A técnica de Espalhamento Dinâmico de Luz (do inglês Dynamic Light Scattering, ou DLS), também conhecida por técnica de Espectroscopia por Correlação de Fótons (do inglês Photon Correlation Spectroscopy, ou PCS), é amplamente utilizada na caraterização estrutural de sistemas coloidais, fornecendo informações importantes sobre tamanhos ca- ractersticos, tempos de correlação e efeitos de polarização no sistema. A facilidade de execução dos experimentos e praticidade das análises é uma das principais vantagens desta técnica. Especificamente para sistemas diludos compostos por partculas em solução, ela pode fornecer informações diretas sobre o raio hidrodinâmico das partculas do meio. No entanto, a obtenção desse parâmetro requer a utilização de métodos de ajuste e análise dos dados experimentais que assumem diversas caractersticas do sistema e possuem li- mitações intrnsecas devido à própria resolução do método frente presença de partculas de variados tamanhos e concentrações, polidispersões contnuas de tamanho, entre vários outros fatores. Existem casos, por exemplo, onde o mesmo conjunto experimental pode ser descrito por dois modelos diferentes. Neste projeto, é proposto um estudo sistemático das limitações dos métodos de análise frente a dados simulados e experimentais, de modo a permitir a aplicabilidade destes métodos a vários tipos de sistemas. Serão investigados casos de sistemas monodispersos e polidispersos, monomodais e multimodais, através da geração de dados simulados que mimetizem a presença desses grupos de partculas, em di- ferentes proporções e polidispersões. Como resultado, teremos indicações da precisão com que estes métodos de modelagem conseguem reproduzir os valores inseridos na simulação. Além disso, experimentos reais serão realizados utilizando amostras padrão de modo a aplicar os métodos de análise a estes dados bem como contrapor os resultados obtidos pelas simulações e pelos dados experimentais. / The Dynamic Light Scattering technique, also known as Photon Correlation Spectros- copy, is widely used for the structural characterization for colloidal systems, providing important information on characteristic length scales, correlation times and polarization effects. The relative simple experimental setup and easy-to-use modeling methods are one of the main advantages of this technique. Specifically for diluted systems of particles in solution, one can obtain direct information on the hydrodynamic for the particles in the system. However, in order to retrieve this parameter it is necessary to use modeling and analysis methods for the experimental methods which assumes intrinsic characteristics on the system and have intrinsic limitations due to the resolution of the method when particles with several sizes, concentrations, etc. In several cases, the same experimental data can be described by several different models. In this project it is proposed a systematic study on the limitations on the analysis methods upon simulated and experimental data in order to investigate the applicability of these methods for several system types. Monodisperse and polydisperse systems are investigated, either composed by one type of particles (monomo- dal) or several types of particles (multimodal). As a result, one can obtain indications on the accuracy that the modeling methods can reproduce the simulated parameters. Finally, real experiments were performed using standard samples in order to test the modeling methods and to calibrate the simulation procedures.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:41:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 VictorAVO_DISSERT.pdf: 1098770 bytes, checksum: b51c2db6f7a42c08650cb24f90bc77c8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-03-30 / Dynamic light scattering was used to monitor relaxation processes in chitosan solutions at concentrations within the semi-dilute and concentrated regimes, Kowhlrausch-Williams-Watts (KWW) equation being successfully fitted to intensity correlation function data. The dependence of KWW equation parameters on chitosan concentration indicated that an increase in concentration from semi-dilute to concentrated regimes resulted in narrowing the distribution of relaxation rates; temperature dependence indicated the relaxation process as described as an energy activated process, whose parameters were function of the interaction between chitosan chains (enthalpy of activation) and rigidity of chitosan conformations (pre-exponential factor) / O espalhamento din?mico de luz foi utilizado para monitorar processos de relaxa??es em solu??es de quitosana em concentra??es dentro dos regimes semidilu?das e concentradas, a equa??o Kowhlrausch-Williams-Watts (KWW) foi ajustada com ?xito para os dados de intensidade de fun??o de correla??o. A depend?ncia dos par?metros da equa??o KWW sobre a concentra??o de quitosana indicam que um aumento na concentra??o de semidilu?da ? concentrada resultou no estreitamento da distribui??o das taxas de relaxa??o; a depend?ncia da temperatura indicada no processo de relaxa??o, foi descrito como energia de ativa??o do processo, cujos par?metros foram fun??es da intera??o entre as cadeias de quitosana (entalpia de ativa??o) e rigidez das conforma??es de quitosana (fator pr?-exponencial)

Current understanding of potential toxicity of engineered nanomaterials to aquatic microorganisms is limited for risk assessment and management. Here we evaluate if the MetPLATE™ test can be used as an effective and rapid screening tool to test for potential aquatic toxicity of various metal-based nanoparticles (NPs). The MetPLATE bioassay is a heavy metal sensitive test based on β-galactosidase activity in Escherichia coli. Five different types of metal-based NPs were screened for toxicity: (1) citrate coated nAg (Citrate-nanosilver), (2) polyvinylpyrrolidone coated nAg (PVP-nAg), (3) uncoated nZnO, (4) uncoated nTiO2 and (5) 1-Octadecylamine coated CdSe Quantum Dots (CdSe QDs); and compared with their corresponding ionic salt toxicity. Citrate-nAg was further fractionated into clean Citrate-nAg, unclean Citrate-nAg and permeate using a tangential flow filtration (TFF) system to eliminate residual ions and impurities from the stock Citrate-nAg suspension and also to differentiate between ionic- versus nano-specific toxicity. Our results showed that nAg, nZnO and CdSe QDs were less toxic than their corresponding ionic salts tested, while nano- or ionic form of TiO2 was not toxic as high as 2.5 g L− 1 to the MetPLATE™ bacteria. Although coating-dependent toxicity was noticeable between two types of Ag NPs evaluated, particle size and surface charge were not adequate to explain the observed toxicity; hence, the toxicity appeared to be material-specific. Overall, the toxicity followed the trend: CdCl2 > AgNO3 > PVP-nAg > unclean Citrate-nAg > clean Citrate-nAg > ZnSO4 > nZnO > CdSe QDs > nTiO2/TiO2. These results indicate that an evaluation of β-galactosidase inhibition in MetPLATE™ E. coli can be an important consideration for rapid screening of metal-based NP toxicity, and should facilitate ecological risk assessment of these emerging contaminants.