Comparative DNA isolation behaviours of silica and polymer based sorbents in batch fashion: monodisperse silica microspheres with bimodal pore size distribution as a new sorbent for DNA isolation

Abstract

Monodisperse silica microspheres with bimodal pore-size distribution were proposed as a high performance sorbent for DNA isolation in batch fashion under equilibrium conditions. The proposed sorbent including both macroporous and mesoporous compartments was synthesized 5.1 μm in-size, by a “staged shape templated hydrolysis and condensation method”. Hydrophilic polymer based sorbents were also obtained in the form of monodisperse-macroporous microspheres ca 5.5 μm in size, with different functionalities, by a developed “multi-stage microsuspension copolymerization” technique. The batch DNA isolation performance of proposed material was comparatively investigated using polymer based sorbents with similar morphologies. Among all sorbents tried, the best DNA isolation performance was achieved with the monodisperse silica microspheres with bimodal pore size distribution. The collocation of interconnected mesoporous and macroporous compartments within the monodisperse silica microspheres provided a high surface area and reduced the intraparticular mass transfer resistance and made easier both the adsorption and desorption of DNA. Among the polymer based sorbents, higher DNA isolation yields were achieved with the monodisperse-macroporous polymer microspheres carrying trimethoxysilyl and quaternary ammonium functionalities. However, batch DNA isolation performances of polymer based sorbents were significantly lower with respect to the silica microspheres.