title: Fabrication of superporous agarose beads for protein adsorption: effect of CaCO3 granules content.
abstract: Agarose gels were fabricated by water-in-oil emulsification with the addition of CaCO(3) granules at 8-16 wt%. Thus agarose beads of different superporosities were produced after dissolving the solid porogen. The superporous agarose (SA) and homogeneous agarose gels were double cross-linked and modified with diethylaminoethyl chloride to produce anion exchangers. We have proposed to use a superporous replica (porous titania microspheres) to examine the superporous structure and pore size distribution of the soft gel. The replica was prepared with the agarose gel entrapping CaCO(3) granules by a sol-gel-templating method. It was found that the superpores created by CaCO(3) granules were uniformly distributed and ranged from 0.95 microm to 1.33 microm. The physical properties of the gels were significantly affected by the porogen content. Importantly, by increasing the solid porogen to 12 wt%, the bed permeability and effective porosity increased about 48% and 33%, respectively. Further increase in the porogen to 16 wt% led to a decrease of the mechanical strength. With increasing superpores in the beads, the dynamic adsorption capacity of the packed columns increased obviously at 305-916 cm/h. Besides, the column efficiency changed less with increasing flow velocity up to 1200 cm/h. It was concluded that the use of 12 wt% CaCO(3) granules in agarose solution was beneficial for the fabrication of the SA gel with good mechanical stability and promising performance for protein chromatography.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemical Engineering and Key Laboratory of Systems Bioengineering of the Ministry of Education, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Weijin Road No. 92, Nankai District, Tianjin 300072, China.
authors.forename: Kai-Feng
authors.initials: KF
authors.lastname: Du
authors.forename: Shu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bai
authors.forename: Xiao-Yan
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sun
mesh_terms: D000327:Adsorption; D000818:Animals; D000837:Anion Exchange Resins / Q000737:chemistry*; D002119:Calcium Carbonate / Q000737:chemistry*; D002417:Cattle; D002852:Chromatography, Ion Exchange / Q000379:methods; D004355:Drug Stability; D057446:Hydrodynamics; D008853:Microscopy; D010316:Particle Size; D016062:Porosity; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D012685:Sepharose / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D012710:Serum Albumin, Bovine / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D000837:Anion Exchange Resins; D011506:Proteins; D012710:Serum Albumin, Bovine; D012685:Sepharose; D002119:Calcium Carbonate