a b s t r a c tThe objective of this study is to improve the blood compatibility of polysulfone (PSF) based hemodialysis membranes through generating antioxidative surfaces with superoxide dismutase (SOD)/catalase (CAT) enzyme couple immobilization. Enzymes were attached both covalently and ionically on the plasma treated and polyethyleneimine (PEI) deposited membranes, respectively. The loss of enzymes from PEI modified surface at the end of 4 h was found to be relatively higher during storage in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) at pH 7.4 when compared to the enzymes on the plasma treated surface. The kinetic studies indicated that SOD catalyzed the reaction in the diffusion-limited regime at all substrate concentrations and its inactivation by hydrogen peroxide was prevented in the presence of CAT. SOD/CAT coated PSF membranes were capable of reducing the levels of reactive oxygen species in blood and can significantly prolong activated partial thromboplastin time. In addition, both the adsorption of human plasma proteins and platelet activation on all modified membranes decreased significantly compared to the unmodified PSF membranes. Proposed modification methods did not affect high permeability, high mechanical strength or the non-toxic properties of the PSF membranes.

a b s t r a c tOne of the challenges faced by ultrafiltration membranes is to separate proteins with a small difference in their molecular weights. Recently, some researchers tried to overcome this problem by using charged membranes. This study examined the use of layer by layer deposition of polyelectrolytes on the chemically-modified polyacyronitrile membrane to increase the selectivity of the ultrafiltration. The membranes were prepared by wet-phase inversion technique and polyethylenimine (PEI) and alginate (ALG) were chosen as cationic and anionic polyelectrolytes for the modification of the surfaces. Sieving coefficient data were obtained with myoglobin and lysozyme as model proteins. The influences of solution pH, ionic strengths of the protein and polyelectrolyte solution and the number of polyelectrolyte bilayers on both selectivity and throughput were investigated. The highest selectivity and throughput were achieved with the 1-bilayer PEI-ALG coated polyacrylonitrile (PAN) membrane. Increasing the number of coating bilayers or the ionic strength of the protein solution or adding salt into the polyelectrolyte coating solution decreased both the maximum selectivity and throughput of the modified membranes.

a b s t r a c tAlpha-lipoic acid (ALA) immobilized polysulfone (PSF) hemodialysis membranes have been fabricated by the dry-wet phase inversion technique. The antioxidant properties of the membranes were evaluated in terms of inhibition of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in blood plasma, while their blood compatibilities were determined by quantitating plasma protein adsorption, platelet adhesion, activation and cytotoxicity to blood cells. The stability of ALA under typical hemodialysis conditions was improved by immobilization, and the greatest enhancement was achieved when it was sandwiched between two polyethyleneimine (PEI) layers. In vitro antioxidant activity measurements showed that ALA coated membranes are not only capable of reducing ROS levels in blood, protein adsorption and platelet activation on the membranes, but, can also prolong coagulation time. All membranes prepared were noncytotoxic to peripheral blood mononuclear cells. In addition, the high permeation rates of solutes through PSF membrane were not affected by ALA immobilization.

This study intends to improve blood compatibility of polysulfone (PSF) membranes by generating a nonthrombogenic surface through heparin immobilization. To achieve this task, the support membrane prepared from a blend of PSF and sulfonated polysulfone (SPSF) was modified with layer by layer (LBL) deposition of polyethyleneimine (PEI) and alginate (ALG) and heparin blended with ALG was immobilized only on the outermost surface of the LBL assembly. The results have shown that the adsorption of human plasma proteins and platelet activation on the LBL modified membranes decreased significantly compared with the unmodified PSF and PSF-SPSF blend membranes. Furthermore, blending ALG with a small amount of heparin remarkably prolonged the APTT values of heparin free PEI/ALG coated membranes. It is envisaged that the use of a blend of HEP and ALG only in the terminating layer of the LBL assembly can be an economical and alternative modification technique to create nonthrombogenic surfaces.

In this study, the effect of activator ZnO and heating time at 190 C on foaming, gelation, and dehydrochlorination of poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) plastisol was investigated. For this purpose, a PVC plastisol was prepared by mixing PVC, dioctyl phthalate (DOP), azodicarbonamide (ADC), ZnO, and the heat stabilizers calcium stearate (CaSt 2 ) and zinc stearate(ZnSt 2 ). PVC plastisol films were heated for 3, 6, 12, and 24 min periods at 190 C to see the effect of heating time on the gelation and foaming processes of the PVC foam. The time of 12 min was determined to be optimum for the completion of gelation and foaming processes without thermal degradation of PVC. No foaming was observed under the same conditions for the samples without ZnO. ZnO had a significant catalytic effect on ADC decomposition, accelerating the foaming of the films. Average porosity measurement showed a consistent increase in porosity with heating time up to 76% and the average density decreased from 1.17 to 0.29 g/cm 3 on foaming. Tensile tests showed that the tensile strength and tensile strain both increased considerably up to 0.98 MPa and 207%, respectively, with heating time and the elastic modulus was seen to gradually decrease from 4.7 to 0.7 MPa with heating time. Films without ZnO had higher tensile strength since there were no pores. PVC thermomat tests showed that ZnO lowered the stability time of plastigel film with azodicarbonamide.