Research articleOpen Access

Evaluation of Urea Adsorption by Various Nanoporous Biomaterials

Volume 5 - Issue 3

Wee-Keat Cheah and Fei-Yee Yeoh*

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- School of Materials and Mineral Resources Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia Engineering Campus, Malaysia
*Corresponding author: Fei-Yee Yeoha, School of Materials and Mineral Resources Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia Engineering Campus, 14300 Nibong Tebal, Penang, Malaysia

Received: June 05, 2018; Published: June 19, 2018

DOI: 10.26717/BJSTR.2018.05.001248

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Abstract

High adsorption capacity and bio-friendly adsorbents are essential components to achieve miniaturization and improved portability while maintaining effective uremic toxin removal. Urea is targeted for removal mainly because it is the largest uremic toxin constituent. This paper evaluates the urea adsorption capacity of nanoporous materials activated carbon, activated carbon fiber and surface functionalized mesoporous silica. Results indicate that amine functionalized silica yielded the highest urea adsorption capacity through chemisorption interaction, despite possessing lower surface area. Sulfuric acid treated activated carbon fiber produced urea adsorption capacity close to that of amine functionalized mesoporous silica due to the high surface area generally through physisorption mechanism.

Keywords: Biomaterials; Porous Materials; Wearable Artificial Kidney; Activated Carbon Fiber; Mesoporous Silica; Renal Toxin

Abberevations: WAK: Wearable Artificial Kidney; MS: Mesoporous Silica; ACF: Activated Carbon Fiber; EFB: Empty Fruit Bunch; CAC: Commercial Granular Activated Carbon; SG: Silica Gel; CS: Commercial Silica