Separation of Proteins Mixture in Hollow Fiber Flow Field-Flow Fractionation

Abstract

Jin-Won Park, Ik-Sung An, and Kangtaek LeeDepartment of Chemical Engineering, Yonsei University, Seoul 120-749, KoreaReceived May 28, 2003Flow field-flow fractionation (FlFFF) is a technology to separate the molecules by size in an open channel.Molecules with different size have different diffusivities and are located vertically in different positions whenpassing through an open channel. In this study, hollow fiber membranes instead of conventional rectangularchannels have been used as materials for the open channel and this change would decrease the cost ofmanufacturing. FlFFF is a useful technique to characterize the biopolymeric materials. Retention time,diffusion coefficients and Stokes radius of analysis can be calculated from the related simple equations.Hollow-fiber flow field-flow fractionation (HF-FlFFF) has been used for the characterization and separation ofprotein mixture in a phosphate buffer solution and has demonstrated the potential to be developed into adisposable FlFFF channel. The important indexes for the analytical separation are selectivity, resolution andplate height. The optimized separation condition for protein mixture of Ovalbumin, Alcohol dehydrogenase,Apoferritin and Thyroglobulin is = 0.65/0.85 mL/min. Key Words : Hollow fiber flow FFF, Protein mixture, Retention timeIntroductionHollow fiber flow FFF (HF-FlFFF) is a new separationmethod for polymers and particles. As opposed to thenormal arrangement with two parallel plates as a separationchannel in Flow Field-Flow Fractionation (FlFFF), cylindri-cal hollow fiber FFF has certain advantages, such assimplicity of operation and independent control of the twoflows (elution and cross flow), including an easier way ofperforming gradient elution. The cylindrical channelautomatically maintains its cylindrical cross section whenpressurized.