High-surface-area interconnected macroporous nanofibrous cellulose microspheres: a versatile platform for large capacity and high-throughput protein separation

Abstract

With the rapid development of biopharmaceutical industry, conventional chromatographic media cannot meet the increasing demand for high-quality proteins. Here, high-surface-area interconnected macroporous nanofibrous cellulose microspheres (NCMs) are fabricated by combining emulsion technique and template method. The macroporous nanofibrous structure of NCMs contributes to the fast transfer of liquid and improves processing efficiency, and the high specific surface area endows NCMs with numerous active sites for the immobilization of adsorption ligands. Benefiting from the advantages of microstructure, NCMs are highly suitable as a versatile adsorbent platform for highly effective protein separation. As a proof of concept, we prepare three NCM-based protein adsorbents with different adsorption mechanisms including anion ion-exchange adsorbent, Cu2+-chelating affinity adsorbent, and hydrophobic interaction adsorbent, which all exhibit high adsorption capacity and fast adsorption kinetic, outstanding recyclability and structure stability for targeted protein, much superior to commercial and most of previously reported same type of adsorbents. We expect that the NCM would provide a promising candidate for the design and construction of high-performance protein adsorbent.