• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.613-618
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• 2007

Pollens are known to be an allergen. They penetrate human respiratory system, triggering a type of seasonal allergic rhinitis called pollen allergy (hey fever). The purpose of this study is to test two field-flow fractionation (FFF) techniques, gravitational FFF (GrFFF) and sedimentation FFF (SdFFF), for their applicability to sizecharacterization of micron-sized pollens. Both GrFFF and SdFFF are elution techniques, providing sequential elution of particles based on size. They allow the size distribution as well as the mean size of the sample to be determined from the elution time. In this study, GrFFF and SdFFF were used to determine the size distribution of Paper Mulberry and Bermuda Grass pollens. For the Paper Mulberry pollen, the mean size obtained by GrFFF is 12.7 μm, and agrees rather well with the OM data with the relative error of 8.0%. For the Bermuda Grass pollen, the mean size obtained by GrFFF is 32.6 μm with the relative error of 12.3%. The mean sizes determined by SdFFF are 12.4 (relative error = 10.1%) and 27.1 μm (relative error = 5.2%) for the Paper Mulberry and the Bermuda Grass pollen, respectively. Although SdFFF tends to yield more accurate size distribution due to lower band broadening under the field strength higher than 1 G, the sizes determined by GrFFF were not significantly different from those by SdFFF.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.262-267
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• 2013

Gravitational field-flow fractionation (GrFFF) is a separation technique that utilizes earth's gravity as the external field. GrFFF is a convenient tool for the size and/or density-based separation of micron-sized particles of various origins. In this study, GrFFF was employed for size-based separation of oyster mushroom spores. Oyster mushroom spores have smooth surface and are of cylindrical to narrow kidney-shapes with 5 to 12 im in longer dimension and 3 to 4 im in shorter dimension, as was confirmed by optical microscope (OM). GrFFF conditions were optimized for separation and characterization of spores by varying the channel flow rate from 0.5 to 1 mL/min. During the GrFFF elution of the spores, 3 fractions were collected to confirm the growth of oyster mushroom spore. The collected fractions were incubated for 30 days in water to examine the influence of the size on the growth of the spores. Results suggested that the oyster mushroom spores collected at the middle part of the GrFFF fractogram grew faster than those collected at the beginning or at the end of the fractogram.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.249-255
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• 2011

Swelling of starch granules by water-sorption causes a progressive or sometimes abrupt change in sorption behavior as a result of structural alterations and the possible exposure of new sites with high affinity for water. It is thus of interest to examine the time-dependent change in the size or shape of the starch granules. Gravitational field-flow fractionation (GrFFF) utilizes the earth's gravity as the external field, and is useful for separation of micron-sized particles with larger particles eluting earlier than smaller ones. In this study, GrFFF was used to monitor the swelling of two starch granules, potato starch and sweet potato starch during contact time of 11-12 days at room temperature in water. Results from GrFFF were compared with those obtained from optical microscope (OM). For both starch granules, the mean sizes were increased with time spent in water.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.711-713
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• 2012

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.34 no.12
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• pp.3877-3880
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• 2013