Induced porosity in chitin xerogels for use in protein adsorption and purification

Abstract

The replacement of plastic-based consumables with sustainable biodegradable biopolymers is an enormous challenge. In this study, we report the synthesis of new chitin materials designed for use as a chromatographic matrix in protein adsorption and purification. The internal porous structure of the chitin material was created using calcium carbonate and silica particles (C and S, respectively) as porogens. In addition, a drying treatment was tested before removing each porogen to evaluate whether it improved the structure adopted by chitin, resulting in CO and SO materials. A control material (Ch) was also synthesized. The physicochemical properties were characterized usingATR-FTIR, SEM, BET, swelling, and porosity estimation. Ch and C matrices were rough, while CO, S, and SO were porous. The S matrix exhibited open, interconnected pores measuring 6.29 ± 2.70 μm in size, with a surface area of 50 m2 g􀀀 1 and 85.71 % porosity. Adsorptive characterization using pure lysozyme through Langmuir modeling showed that the highest Qm value was found for Ch (55.499 ± 2.214 mg g􀀀 1), while the lowest Kd value was observed for the S matrix (0.491 ± 0.096 mg mL􀀀 1). The results suggest that the new chitin-based material synthesized with silica particles has promising properties for chromatographic applications.