Application of membranes and compact, porous units for the separation of biopolymers

For fast separation of biopolymers, recently developed media have become increasingly widespread. They consist either of membranes or of compact, porous disks and tubes, both called Convective Interaction Media (CIM). Separation can be carried out in every mode, e.g., ion-exchange, reversed-phase, hydrophobic-interaction, and affinity recognition. The units can be used for analytical as well as for preparative purposes. Such fast analytical units will allow separations within less than 10 s and can therefore be used for in-process analysis. The advantages and disadvantages of such analytical and preparative separations are discussed along with technical problems which have been solved.