Hydrophilic Plastics Demonstrate Outstanding Performance for Drug Discovery Applications

Porvair Sciences reports on testing that demonstrates how its hydrophilic Vyon® porous plastics exhibit outstanding performance in drug discovery applications due to the high hydrophilic void volume conversion of the materials’ pore structure after a special treatment process.

Vyon® manufactured from HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) and and UHMWPE (Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene) is naturally hydrophobic and generally pose a significant level of difficulty for water and aqueous solutions to pass through or to be absorbed into the porous structure when required. Using a vacuum deposition process, the surface energy of Porvair’s manufactured Vyon® and its internal tortuous structure can be altered to promote hydrophilic characteristics and allow the material to wet out when in contact with water or other aqueous solutions. This allows the liquid to be effectively absorbed into the pore structure and opens up new possibilities for Vyon® to be effective in various applications including wicking and where the porous structure is required to act as a liquid reservoir with similar characteristics to a sponge.

Working in conjunction with an OEM partner, Porvair Sciences has been able to demonstrate that hydrophilic Vyon® is perfectly suited as a resin support media in the isolation and purification of pharmaceutical drug production. With excellent, consistent and uniform wetting performance and quick liquid absorption characteristics, hydrophilic Vyon® was shown to provide a strong and firm support with uniform liquid absorption and flow characteristics, a crucial prerequisite for drug discovery and purification processes.

For process chromatography applications, columns sizes may vary. For OEM partners, Porvair Science can manufacture tailored hydrophilic Vyon® discs to fit any column designs requiring hydrophilic discs of up to 2m in diameter. These hydrophilic Vyon® disc supports are manufactured in a cGMP and temperature-controlled environment to achieve the tight tolerances required for most biomedical and life science applications.

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