PREPARATION OF A HYDROPHOBIC POROUS MEMBRANE CONTAINING PHENYL GROUPSAND ITS PROTEIN ADSORPTION PERFORMANCE

A novel porous membrane was prepared by radiation-induced graft polyme rization of an epoxy-group-containing vinyl monomer, glycidyl methacry late, and subsequent addition of phenol and water. A phenyl group was appended to the polymer chain grafted on to a porous polyethylene holl ow-fibre membrane. The presence of a diol group together with the phen yl group was required to reduce non-selective adsorption of the protei n. A bovine serum albumin (BSA) phosphate buffer solution containing 2 M ammonium sulfate was forced to permeate through the resultant hydro phobic porous membrane, 0.36 mm thick with a phenyl-group density of 1 .3 mmol/g. The breakthrough curves of BSA overlapped independent of th e residence time in the range 12-1.2 s because of negligible diffusion al mass-transfer resistance. A lower phenyl-group density resulted in a higher recovery of BSA after a series of adsorption and elution step s.