Issue 26, 2021

Soft synthetic microgels as mimics of mycoplasma

Abstract

Artificial model colloids are of special interest in the development of advanced sterile filters, as they are able to efficiently separate pleomorphic, highly deformable and infectious bacteria such as mycoplasma, which, until now, has been considered rather challenging and laborious. This study presents a full range of different soft to super soft synthetic polymeric microgels, including two types with similar hydrodynamic mean diameter, i.e., 180 nm, and zeta potential, i.e., −25 ± 10 mV, but different deformability, synthesized by inverse miniemulsion terpolymerization of acrylamide, sodium acrylate and N,N′-methylenebisacrylamide. These microgels were characterized by means of dynamic, electrophoretic and static light scattering techniques. In addition, the deformability of the colloids was investigated by filter cake compressibility studies during ultrafiltration in dead-end mode, analogously to a study of real mycoplasma, i.e., Acholeplasma laidlawii, to allow for a direct comparison. The results indicate that the variation of the synthesis parameters, i.e., crosslinker content, polymeric solid content and content of sodium acrylate, has a significant impact on the swelling behavior of the microgels in aqueous solution as well as on their deformability under filtration conditions. A higher density of chemical crosslinking points results in less swollen and more rigid microgels. Furthermore, these parameters determine electrokinetic properties of the more or less permeable colloids. Overall, it is shown that these soft synthetic microgels can be obtained with tailor-made properties, covering the size of smallest species of and otherwise similar to real mycoplasma. This is a relevant first step towards the future use of synthetic microgels as mimics for mycoplasma.

Graphical abstract: Soft synthetic microgels as mimics of mycoplasma

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
10 Mar 2021
Accepted
21 May 2021
First published
21 May 2021

Soft Matter, 2021,17, 6445-6460

Soft synthetic microgels as mimics of mycoplasma

D. Büning, J. Schumacher, A. Helling, R. Chakroun, F. Ennen-Roth, A. H. Gröschel, V. Thom and M. Ulbricht, Soft Matter, 2021, 17, 6445 DOI: 10.1039/D1SM00379H

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements