1496results about "Electrostatic separation" patented technology

This invention relates to methods for reducing the presence of a compound in an ionically conductive material, e.g., for use in iontophoretic devices, wherein the presence of the compound interferes with detecting a selected analyte. Removal of the compound can typically take place either during or after the manufacture of the ionically conductive material or an assembly comprising this material. Also disclosed are methods for generating selectively permeable barriers on the reactive faces of electrodes. Further, this invention relates to hydrogels comprising one or more biocides, as well as assemblies containing such hydrogels.

An electret filter media, and mask, that is made of a nonwoven web of thermoplastic microfibers. The thermoplastic microfibers are of substantially the same composition, are nonconductive, and have an effective fiber diameter less than about 15 micrometers. The nonwoven web also has sufficient unpolarized trapped charge to exhibit an initial filtration quality factor of at least 0.31 when measured under the DOP Penetration and Pressure Drop Test.

The invention provides a catalyzed soot filter formed on a wall flow substrate having internal walls coated with catalyst compositions. The soot filter maintains a homogeneous flow of the exhaust gases through the internal walls of the substrate along the length of the filter due to the coating design. Both the efficiency and the durability of the catalytic function are increased over conventionally designed catalyzed soot filters. The catalyzed soot filter provides an integrated function for simultaneously treating the gaseous components of the exhaust (e.g., CO and HC) and the particulate matter deposited in the filter.

The present invention is directed to a process and apparatus for removing and stabilizing mercury from mercury-containing gas streams. A gas stream containing vapor phase elemental and/or speciated mercury is contacted with reagent, such as an oxygen-containing oxidant, in a liquid environment to form a mercury-containing precipitate. The mercury-containing precipitate is kept or placed in solution and reacts with one or more additional reagents to form a solid, stable mercury-containing compound.

A method of growing a thin film onto a substrate placed in a reaction chamber according to the ALD method by subjecting the substrate to alternate and successive surface reactions. The method includes providing a first reactant source and providing an inactive gas source. A first reactant is fed from the first reactant source in the form of repeated alternating pulses to a reaction chamber via a first conduit. The first reactant is allowed to react with the surface of the substrate in the reaction chamber. Inactive gas is fed from the inactive gas source into the first conduit via a second conduit that is connected to the first conduit at a first connection point so as to create a gas phase barrier between the repeated alternating pulses of the first reactant entering the reaction chamber. The inactive gas is withdrawn from said first conduit via a third conduit connected to the first conduit at a second connection point.

An automated analyzer for performing multiple diagnostic assays simultaneously includes multiple stations, or modules, in which discrete aspects of the assay are performed on fluid samples contained in reaction receptacles. The analyzer includes stations for automatically preparing a specimen sample, incubating the sample at prescribed temperatures for prescribed periods, preforming an analyte isolation procedure, and ascertaining the presence of a target analyte. An automated receptacle transporting system moves the reaction receptacles from one station to the next. The analyzer further includes devices for carrying a plurality of specimen tubes and disposable pipette tips in a machine-accessible manner, a device for agitating containers of target capture reagents comprising suspensions of solid support material and for presenting the containers for machine access thereto, and a device for holding containers of reagents in a temperature controlled environment and presenting the containers for machine access thereto. A method for performing an automated diagnostic assay includes an automated process for isolating and amplifying a target analyte. The process is performed by automatically moving each of a plurality of reaction receptacles containing a solid support material and a fluid sample between stations for incubating the contents of the reaction receptacle and for separating the target analyte bound to the solid support from the fluid sample. An amplification reagent is added to the separated analyte after the analyte separation step and before a final incubation step.

The invention relates to a process for sorting and separating a mixture of (n, m) type single-wall carbon nanotubes according to (n, m) type. A mixture of (n, m) type single-wall carbon nanotubes is suspended such that the single-wall carbon nanotubes are individually dispersed. The nanotube suspension can be done in a surfactant-water solution and the surfactant surrounding the nanotubes keeps the nanotube isolated and from aggregating with other nanotubes. The nanotube suspension is acidified to protonate a fraction of the nanotubes. An electric field is applied and the protonated nanotubes migrate in the electric fields at different rates dependent on their (n, m) type. Fractions of nanotubes are collected at different fractionation times. The process of protonation, applying an electric field, and fractionation is repeated at increasingly higher pH to separated the (n, m) nanotube mixture into individual (n, m) nanotube fractions. The separation enables new electronic devices requiring selected (n, m) nanotube types.

Methods are provided for aligning carbon nanotubes and for making a composite material comprising aligned carbon nanotubes. The method for aligning carbon nanotubes comprises adsorbing magnetic nanoparticles to carbon nanotubes dispersed in a fluid medium to form a magnetic particle-carbon nanotube composite in the fluid medium; and exposing the composite to a magnetic field effective to align the nanotubes in the fluid medium. The method for making a composite material comprising aligned carbon nanotubes comprises (1) adsorbing magnetic nanoparticles to carbon nanotubes to form a magnetic particle-carbon nanotube composite; (2) dispersing the magnetic particle-carbon nanotube composite in a fluid matrix material to form a mixture; (3) exposing the mixture to a magnetic field effective to align the nanotubes in the mixture; and (4) solidifying the fluid matrix material to form a nanotube/matrix material composite comprising the aligned nanotubes which remain aligned in the absence of said magnetic field.

A high efficiency filtration medium comprised of a nonwoven filter web of electret charged fibers of a nonconductive thermoplastic resin having a resistivity greater than 1014 ohm-cm, preferably polypropylene. The nonwoven filter web has a basis weight (BW) of less than 60 grams/m2, an effective fiber diameter (EFD) of less than 5 microns and a penetration (PEN) of less than 0.03%, wherein the ratio); BW/(EFD.PEN) is greater than 200. The invention filter medium can be easily used in applications requiring HEPA performance at relatively low pressure drops.

A miniaturized, integrated, microfluidic device pulls materials bound to magnetic particles from one laminar flow path to another by applying a local magnetic field gradient. The device removes microbial and mammalian cells from flowing biological fluids without any wash steps. A microfabricated high-gradient magnetic field concentrator (HGMC) is integrated at one side of a microfluidic channel. When magnetic particles are introduced into one flow path, they remain limited to that flow path. When the HGMC is magnetized, the magnetic beads are pulled from the initial flow path into the collection stream, thereby cleansing the fluid. The microdevice allows large numbers of beads and materials to be sorted simultaneously, has no capacity limit, does not lose separation efficiency as particles are removed, and is useful for cell separations from blood and other biological fluids. This on-chip separator allows cell separations to be performed in the field outside of hospitals and laboratories.

An apparatus and method for carrying out the affinity separation of a target substance from a liquid test medium by mixing magnetic particles having surface immobilized ligand or receptor within the test medium to promote an affinity binding reaction between the ligand and the target substance. The test medium with the magnetic particles in a suitable container is removably mounted in an apparatus that creates a magnetic field gradient in the test medium. This magnetic gradient is used to induce the magnetic particles to move, thereby effecting mixing. The mixing is achieved either by movement of a magnet relative to a stationary container or movement of the container relative to a stationary magnet. In either case, the magnetic particles experience a continuous angular position change with the magnet. Concurrently with the relative angular movement between the magnet and the magnetic particles, the magnet is also moved along the length of the container causing the magnetic field gradient to sweep the entire length of the container. After the desired time, sufficient for the affinity reaction to occur, movement of the magnetic gradient is ended, whereby the magnetic particles are immobilized on the inside wall of the container nearest to the magnetic source. The remaining test medium is removed while the magnetic particles are retained on the wall of the container. The test medium or the particles may then be subjected to further processing.

A powder recycling system includes a powder feeder, a remaining powder collector, a bridge breaker, a block powder filter, a cyclone separator, a particulate filter cleaner, an air pressure generation device and an electrostatic precipitator. The powder feeder provides a construction powder to a construction platform. The remaining powder collector for collects the remaining powder. The cyclone separator is used to separate the large-size powdery particles and the small-size powdery particles of the remaining powder from each other through a rotating gaseous stream. The large-size powdery particles fall down to the powder feeder due to gravity, and the small-size powdery particles of the remaining powder is removed from the rotating gaseous stream and transmitted to the particulate filter cleaner. After the small-size powdery particles of the remaining powder are filtered by the particulate filter cleaner, the suspended small-size powdery particles are transmitted to the electrostatic precipitator.

A honeycomb structured body includes a plurality of honeycomb members which are bonded to one another by interposing an adhesive layer. Each of the honeycomb members has a number of cells placed in parallel with one another in the longitudinal direction with a cell wall therebetween. When the longitudinal direction is defined as the orientation axis, the degree of orientation Ω of the inorganic fibers in the adhesive layer obtained by the Saltykov method is set in the range of about 0.2≦Ω≦about 0.7 or in the range of about −0.7≦Ω≦about −0.2 in the adhesive layer.

Oxidative sorbents are provided for adsorbing elemental or oxidized mercury from mercury-containing fluids such as flue gas from a coal-burning power utility or the like at a temperature range of about 50 to 350 ° C. The method of preparing and using the oxidative sorbents is also provided. The oxidative sorbent compositions include one or more silicates capable of cation exchange with a plurality of active metal cations and their counter anions. The silicates may include those selected from clays such as montmorillonite, laumonite, bentonite, Mica, vermiculite and kaolinite, and from silica gels, natural and synthetic molecular sieves, zeolites, and ashes from stoker- and pulverized coal-fired boilers. The one or more oxidative metal halides and/or sulfates may be selected from the group consisting of CuCl, CuBr, CuCl₂, CuBr₂, CuSO₄, FeCl₂, FeCl₃, FeSO₄, Fe₂(SO₄)₃, ZnCl₂, ZnBr₂, NiCl₂, and NiSO₄. The oxidative sorbents may also include activated carbon.

The invention provides, inter alia, a method for producing granules from a powder, characterized in that a low compaction force is applied to the powder to produce a compacted mass comprising a mixture of fine particles and granules and separating fine particles from the granules by entraining the fine particles in a gas stream. Also provided are apparatus for use in the process and tablets formed by compression of the resultant granules.

A method for conducting a broad range of biochemical analyses or manipulations on a series of nano- to subnanoliter reaction volumes and an apparatus for carrying out the same are disclosed. The invention is implemented on a fluidic microchip to provide high serial throughput. In particular, the disclosed device is a microfabricated channel device that can manipulate nanoliter or subnanoliter reaction volumes in a controlled manner to produce results at rates of 1 to 10 Hz per channel. The reaction volumes are manipulated in serial fashion analogous to a digital shift register. The invention has application to such problems as screening molecular or cellular targets using single beads from split-synthesis combinatorial libraries, screening single cells for RNA or protein expression, genetic diagnostic screening at the single cell level, or performing single cell signal transduction studies.

A system is presented for correction of a patient's biological fluid, such as his blood, lymph or spinal fluid, containing various low-, medium- and high-molecular toxins. The system comprises an extracorporeal flow line in the form of a flexible tube interconnected between outlet and inlet means attached to appropriate location(s) on a patient's body. A small amount of the biological fluid, i.e., substantially not exceeding 100 ml, substantially continuously flows through the tube, and is mixed with magneto-conductive particles capable of adsorbing the various toxins. An obtained mixture of the biological fluid with the particles passes through a magnetic field region, and substantially all of the magneto-conductive particles are retained therein. Particle-free biological fluid is then returned into the patient's body through the inlet means.

The present invention provides a micro liquid control system which, adopting a method to flow a fine target object such as droplets together with a main liquid, allows high speed, large quantity processing for sorting the target object such as the droplets. The system comprises a microchannel, which includes a main channel to flow the main liquid in which the fine target object is dispersed and a sorting channel to sort the target object at the downstream side of the main channel, and a target object selecting means, which selects the target object flowing in the microchannel and supply it to the sorting channel. The target object selecting means comprises electrodes on which the voltage of the same polarity or the opposite polarity is applied to move and select the target object with the attractive or repulsive force.

A DPF with an SCR catalyst and a method for selectively reducing nitrogen oxides with ammonia, filtering particulates, and reducing the ignition temperature of soot on a DPF are provided. The catalyst includes a first component of copper, chromium, cobalt, nickel, manganese, iron, niobium, or mixtures thereof, a second component of cerium, a lanthanide, a mixture of lanthanides, or mixtures thereof, and a component characterized by increased surface acidity. The catalyst may also include strontium as an additional second component. The catalyst selectively reduces nitrogen oxides to nitrogen with ammonia and oxidizes soot at low temperatures. The catalyst has high hydrothermal stability.

A vessel for use in clinical analysis including an open top, a closed bottom, and at least four tapered sides. A method for collecting magnetic particles in a fluid comprising the steps of providing a magnet and a vessel containing magnetic particles in a fluid, attracting the magnetic particles to the magnet, and moving the magnetic particles with the magnet out of the fluid.

A washable air filter for removing particles from the inlet air to a heating and/or air conditioning system formed of an assembly of a central polymeric pad containing actively charged charge control agents of a first polarity, a polymeric net containing a dispersion of charged charge control agents of a second polarity in the polymer on each side of the pad and a stiff, deformable metal or plastic grill on each side of the net to form an assembly which can be corrugated and placed in a perimeter frame. The charging is preferably accomplished as the assembly passes over the surface of a roller with a conductive surface.

A diesel particulate filter assembly, including a housing having an inlet end and an outlet end, a particulate filter portion consisting essentially of mullite fibers and positioned in the housing, channels in the filter, a porous wall between adjacent channels, and an exhaust path extending through the inlet end, through the particulate filter portion and though the outlet end.

Methods and devices for selectively removing from a subject a target cell, pathogen, or virus expressing a binding partner on its surface are presented. In one embodiment, the device contains an excorporeal circuit, which includes, at least, a magnetic filter comprising a magnet and a removable, magnetizable substrate capable of capturing magnetic nanomaterials; and a pump in fluid communication with the magnetic filter, wherein the pump moves fluid through the excorporeal circuit. The magnet is capable of generating a magnetic field sufficient to capture magnetic nanomaterials in the magnetic field. In a preferred embodiment, the target cells are cancer cells and/or cells infected with pathogenic agents. The devices may be designed for extracorporeal or in vivo uses. Functionalized superparamagnetic nanoparticles are either mixed ex vivo with a biological fluid from the patient or injected into the patient. Then the biological fluid, which includes the nanoparticles is transported to the magnetic filter to remove any nanoparticles that are complexed to the target cells, pathogens, or virus, and any free nanoparticles. Optionally, the functionalized nanoparticles contain and deliver a therapeutic agent. In one embodiment, the therapeutic agent is released when the nanoparticle binds to the target cells, pathogens, or virus.

A process and apparatus for the decontamination of gaseous contaminants (especially oxygen, carbon dioxide and water vapor) from hydride gases (including their lower alkyl analogs) down to <=100 ppb contaminant concentration are described. The critical component is a high surface area metal oxide substrate with reduced metal active sites, which in various physical forms is capable of decontaminating such gases to <=100 ppb, <=50 ppb or <=10 ppb level without being detrimentally affected by the hydride gases. The surface area of the substrate will be >=100 m2/g, and preferably 200-800 m2/g. Oxides of various metals, especially manganese or molybdenum, can be used, and mixtures of integrated oxides, or one type of oxide coated on another, may be used. The substrate is preferably retained in a hydride-gas-resistant container which is installed in a gas supply line, such as to a gas- or vapor-deposition manufacturing unit. The invention provides final decontamination for hydride gas streams intended for gas- or vapor-deposition formation of high purity LED, laser (especially blue laser), electronic, optical or similar products, and can be used in combination with upstream preliminary decontamination process and/or upstream or downstream solid particulate removal units.

A method and apparatus for continuously separating or concentrating particles that includes flowing two fluids in laminar flow through a magnetic field gradient which causes target particles to migrate to a waste fluid stream, and collecting each fluid stream after being flowed through the magnetic field gradient.

A water purification system having a porous anode electrode (21) and a porous cathode electrode (20), each of which is made of graphite, at least one metal oxide, and an ion-exchange, cross-linked, polarizable polymer, and optionally comprises microchannels. Disposed between the electrodes is a non-electron conductive, fluid permeable separator element (22), whereby wastewater is able to flow from one electrode to the other electrode. The electrodes and separator may be disposed within a housing (23) having a wastewater inlet opening (24), and exhaust waste outlet opening (26) and a purified water outlet opening (25). In this way, components of the system are easily replaced should the need arise.

A device for transporting magnetic or magnetisable microbeads (25) in a capillary chamber (14) comprises a permanent magnet (10) or an electromagnet (11) for subjecting the capillary chamber to a substantially uniform magnetic field, to apply a permanent magnetic moment to the microbeads (25). At least one planar coil (22) and preferably an array of overlapping coils are located adjacent to the capillary chamber (14) for applying a complementary magnetic field on the microbeads parallel or antiparallel to said substantially uniform magnetic field, to drive the microbeads. An arrangement is provided for switching the current applied to the coil(s) (22) to invert the field produced thereby, to selectively apply an attractive or repulsive driving force on the microbeads (25). The device is usable to transport microbeads for performing chemical and biochemical reactions or assay, as is done for instance in clinical chemistry assays for medical diagnostic purposes.

A system for removing mercury from combustion gas. The system includes a combustion device, a stack, and a duct system that couples the combustion device to the stack. The system further comprises an injection system that is coupled to the duct system. The injection system injects sorbents including alkali-based sorbents and carbon-based sorbents into the duct system.

A device (10) is provided for separating magnetic or magnetizable particles from a liquid by using a magnetic field. The device includes a head piece (3) with one or more magnetizable bars (4) which is/are permanently or detachably connected with the head piece (3), as well as one or more permanent magnets (1) whose relative position with respect to the head piece can be changed by a predeterminable movement of the magnet(s) or/and by a predeterminable movement of the head piece.

Disclosed is an air cleaner having independent fluid paths and a home appliance having the air cleaner. The air cleaner includes a front panel having a plurality of air inlets formed thereon for air to flow in from outside of the case, first and second blower devices arranged inside the case to allow air to flow in through the plurality of air inlets, first and second filter units arranged to filter the air flowing in by the first and second blower devices, a first outlet located on the case to release the air, a second outlet formed at a different location from that of the first outlet, a first fluid path formed between one of the plurality of air inlets and the first outlet; and a second fluid path formed between another of the plurality of air inlets and the second outlet.