EFFECT OF PROTEIN CHARGE ON CAKE PROPERTIES IN DEAD-END ULTRAFILTRATION OF PROTEIN SOLUTIONS

The properties of the filter cake formed on the retentive membrane in dead-end ultrafiltration of bovine serum albumin (BSA) solutions were obtained by using a batchwise filter which had a sudden reduction in i ts filtration area. Moreover, the zeta potential of BSA was measured b y the electrophoretic light scattering method in order to investigate the correlation with the properties of the protein cake. The experimen tal data clearly demonstrated that the plots of such properties of the filter cake as the average porosity epsilon(av) and the average speci fic filtration resistance alpha(av) against the absolute value of the zeta potential can almost be represented by a unique curve, respective ly, irrespective of the sign of the zeta potential. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.