Frontal chromatography of proteins: The effect on column performance of the restricted diffusion of molecules in porous chromatographic adsorbents

A theoretical formulation is presented that can be used to describe the dyn amic behavior of frontal chromatography of proteins in columns packed with adsorbent particles in which restricted pore diffusion of the adsorbate mol ecules occurs. The results of this work clearly indicate that the time for breakthrough and the effective utilization of the adsorptive capacity of th e chromatographic particles increase as (a) the size of the adsorbate and/o r ligand (active site) molecule decreases, (b) the pore connectivity, n(T), of the porous network of the adsorbent particles increases, and (c) the co lumn length, L, increases. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserv ed.