Separation of Macromolecules by Hexagonal Mesoporous Membrane Filters

摘要

We fabricated tight mesocylinder silica nanotubes (NTs) inside anodic alumina membrane (AAM) nanochannels as a promising filter candidate for size-exclusion separation of high concentration macromolecules such as lysozyme (LYS), cytochrome c (CytC), myoglobin (Mb), β-lactoglobulin (β-LG), and hemoglobin (Hb), proteins. The systematic design of the mesocylinder filters was based on densely engineered mesocylinder pores of silica nanotubes (NTs), which are vertically aligned with open surfaces of top-bottom ends inside AAM. The fabricated membranes with impermeable coated layers, robust surfaces, and uniform cylinder pores in nanoscale sizes can rapidly (in seconds) separate large quantities of proteins. Separation of macromolecules could be carried out by bench-top filtration method. This densely engineered mesocylinder filters of macromolecules shows evidence of controlled filtration processes in terms of long-term stability, separation efficiency, and reusability.