On-line microfluidic immobilized-enzyme reactors: A new tool for characterizing synthetic polymers.

On-line microfluidic immobilized-enzyme reactors: A new tool for characterizing synthetic polymers. Anal Chim Acta. 2019 Apr 11;1053:62-69 Authors: Wouters B, Pirok BWJ, Soulis D, Garmendia Perticarini RC, Fokker S, van den Hurk RS, Skolimowski M, Peters RAH, Schoenmakers PJ Abstract Biodegradable polymeric materials may eventually replace biostable materials for medical applications, including therapeutic devices, scaffolds for tissue engineering, and drug-delivery vehicles. To further develop such materials, a more fundamental understanding is necessary to correlate parameters including chemical-composition distribution within a macromolecular structure with the final properties of the material, including particle-size. A wide variety of analytical techniques have been applied for the characterization of polymer materials, including hyphenated techniques such as comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography (LC × LC). In this context, we have investigated enzymatic degradation of polyester-based nanoparticles, both in-solution and by the use of an immobilized-enzyme reactor (IMER). We have demonstrated for the first time the implementation of such an IMER in a size-exclusion chromatography system for on-line degradation and subsequent analysis of the polymer degradation products. The effect of residence times ranging from 12 s to 4 min on polymer degradation was assessed. IMER-assisted degradation is much faster comp...
Source: Analytica Chimica Acta - Category: Chemistry Authors: Tags: Anal Chim Acta Source Type: research