Construction of a thread coater and use of azocasein release To characterize the sealant coat porosity of fibers coated with latex biocatalytic coatings

Abstract

A single-stage annular fiber coating method with co-current dry-air drying at 30 degrees C has been developed for multilayer coating of 128 &mgr;m diameter polyester thread (yarn) with latex films as a model for enzyme immobilization and development of a filament biocatalytic filter. Acrylic vinyl acetate polymer coatings were sequentially metered onto the fibers by the combination of a flexible squeegee and a red rubber annulus. The thread coater can operate over a range of 0.07-1.37 m/min thread velocities while delivering a nearly constant and reproducible polymer loading of 30. 8 +/- 1.3 mg/m. A 100% polyester, 278.9 denier thread was precoated with latex to generate an approximately 369 denier sealed filament. The filament was then coated with a latex + sulfanilamide-azocasein mixture and sealed with a polymer top coat. The permeability of the polymer sealant top coat was characterized using entrapped azocasein as a tracer molecule and monitoring the azocasein release upon rehydration of the coated threads. Azocasein release rate decreased with curing time at 30 degrees C until 2 days and was invariant after 2-3 days of curing. A 282 mOsm rehydrating solution was sufficient to suppress increased azocasein release due to top coat blistering. No enhancement in the permeability of the top coat was observed when high molecular weight water soluble polymers (WSPs) were used as fillers. This probably results from the low WSP to latex ratio used (0.05-0.1) and the slow rate of WSP leaching compared to the release of azocasein. A method using 60-120 mesh silica was also developed to study the effect of mechanical abrasion of the coated threads as measured by azocasein release kinetics.