Selective immobilization capacity

Therefore, reservoir minerals are expected to have a selective immobilization capacity for certain pollutants or trace elements. Mineral phases with special surface properties and amorphous materials may also be considered here (Table 9.8). Reservoir minerals may form in a wide range from high-tem-perature processes to temperatures of diagenesis. 

Proteins. A chiral stationary phase with immobilized a -acid glycoprotein on silica beads was introduced by Hermansson in 1983 [18, 19]. Several other proteins such as chicken egg albumin (ovalbumin), human serum albumin, and cellohy-drolase were also used later for the preparation of commercial CSPs. Their selectivity is believed to occur as a result of excess of dispersive forces acting on the more retained enantiomer [17]. These separation media often exhibit only modest loading capacity. 

The possibility of having membrane systems also as tools for a better design of chemical transformation is today becoming attractive and realistic. Catalytic membranes and membrane reactors are the subject of significant research efforts at both academic and industrial levels. For biological applications, synthetic membranes provide an ideal support to catalyst immobilization due to their biomimic capacity enzymes are retained in the reaction side, do not pollute the products and can be continuously reused. The catalytic action of enzymes is extremely efficient, selective and highly stereospecific if compared with chemical catalysts moreover, immobilization procedures have been proven to enhance the enzyme stability. In addition, membrane bioreactors are particularly attractive in terms of eco-compatibility, because they do not require additives, are able to operate at moderate temperature and pressure, and reduce the formation of by-products. 

The method of soil suspensions extracts is based on metal desorption/dissolution processes, which primarily depend on the physico-chemical characteristics of the metals, selected soil properties and environmental conditions. Metal adsorption/ desorption and solubility studies are important in the characterization of metal mobility and availability in soils. Metals are, in fact, present within the soil system in different pools and can follow either adsorption and precipitation reactions or desorption and dissolution reactions (Selim and Sparks, 2001). The main factors affecting the relationship between the soluble/mobile and immobile metal pools are soil pH, redox potential, adsorption and exchange capacity, the ionic strength of soil pore water, competing ions and kinetic effects (e.g. contact time) (Evans, 1989 Impelhtteri et al., 2001 McBride, 1994 Sparks, 1995). 

In 1995 Schwarz et al.159 described novel heterocyclic structures able to adsorb selectively immunoglobulins. The structures contained sulfur and nitrogen. Reported ligands were 2-mercapto-pyridine,2-mercapto-pyrimidine, and mercapto-thiazoline. These structures were chemically immobilized on silica and agarose beads using epoxy-activated matrices. Binding capacities for silica based material were about 25 mg of IgG per milliliter of resin, while for agarose beads it was about 18 mg/mL. 

A new development in the field of potentiometric enzyme sensors came in the 1980s from the work of Caras and Janata (72). They describe a penicillin-responsive device which consists of a pH-sensitive, ion-selective field effect transistor (ISFET) and an enzyme-immobilized ISFET (ENFET). Determining urea with ISFETs covered with immobilized urease is also possible (73). Current research is focused on the construction and characterization of ENFETs (27,73). Although ISFETs have several interesting features, the need to compensate for variations in the pH and buffering capacity of the sample is a serious hurdle for the rapid development of ENFETs. For detailed information on the principles and applications of ENFETs, the reader is referred to several recent reviews (27, 74) and Chapter 8. 

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