Synthesis of thermo-responsive polymers recycling aqueous two-phase systems and phase formation mechanism with partition of ε-polylysine

- Two thermo-response polymers PN and PVBAm forming ATPS have been prepared.
- Both of the two polymers can be recycled by single temperature condition with recovery of over 95.0%.
- Phase formation mechanism analysis of the PVBAm/PN ATPS had been studied.
- The maximal partition coefficient (1/K) of pure ε-polylysine and ε-polylysine fermentation broth was 6.87 and 7.41, respectively.

Aqueous two-phase systems (ATPS) have the potential application in bioseparation and biocatalysis engineering. In this paper, a recyclable ATPS was developed by two thermo-responsive copolymers, PVBAm and PN. Copolymer PVBAm was copolymerized using N-vinylcaprolactam, Butyl methacrylate and Acrylamide as monomers, and PN was synthesized by N-isopropylacrylamide. The lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of PVBAm and PN were 45.0 °C and 33.5 °C, respectively. The recoveries of both polymers could achieve over 95.0%. The phase behavior and formation mechanism of PVBAm/PN ATPS was studied. Low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR) was applied in the phase-forming mechanism study in ATPS. In addition, combining the analysis results of surface tension, transmission electron microscopy and dynamic light scattering, the phase-forming of the PVBAm/PN ATPS was proved. The application was performed by partition of ε-polylysine in the 2% PVBAm/2% PN (w/w) ATPS. The results demonstrated that ε-polylysine was extracted into the PN-rich phase, the maximal partition coefficient (1/K) and extraction recovery of pure ε-polylysine were 6.87 and 96.36%, respectively, and 7.41 partition coefficient and 97.85% extraction recovery for ε-polylysine fermentation broth were obtained in the presence of 50 mM (NH4)2SO4 at room temperature. And this method can effectively remove the most impurities from fermentation broth when (NH4)2SO4 exists in the ATPS. It is believed that the thermo-responsive recycling ATPS has a good application prospect in the field of bio-separation.