commercial reagents were of the highest
purity available and used without purification. Perfluoroperhydrophenanthrene
(
from SynQuest Lab (Alachua, FL) and Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis, MO),
respectively. Sodium tetrakis[3,5-bis(perfluorohexyl)phenyl]borate
(
procedure.21 (link) EMD Millipore Fluoropore Polytetrafluoroethylene
(PTFE) membrane filters (pore size, 0.45 μm; filter diameter,
47 mm; thickness 50, μm; 85% porosity) were purchased from Fisher
Scientific (Hanover Park, IL). Viton fluoroelastomer O-rings were
obtained from McMaster-Carr (Chicago, IL). Autonorm freeze-dried animal
serum was purchased in the powder form from Sero (Billingstad, Norway).
High molecular weight poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC), 2-nitrophenyl octyl
ether (o-NPOE), tridodecylamine, and potassium tetrakis(4-chlorophenyl)borate
were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis, MO). All aqueous solutions
were prepared with deionized and charcoal-treated water (0.182 MΩ
cm specific resistance) from a Milli-Q Plus reagent-grade water system
(Millipore, Bedford, MA).