Preparation of a hydrophobic porous membrane containing phenyl groups and its protein adsorption performance

A novel porous membrane was prepared by radiation-induced graft polymerization of an epoxy-group-containing vinyl monomer, glycidyl methacrylate, and subsequent addition of phenol and water. A phenyl group was appended to the polymer chain grafted on to a porous polyethylene hollow-fibre membrane. The presence of a diol group together with the phenyl group was required to reduce non-selective adsorption of the protein. A bovine serum albumin (BSA) phosphate buffer solution containing 2 M ammonium sulfate was forced to permeate through the resultant hydrophobic porous membrane, 0.36 mm thick with a phenyl-group density of 1.3 mmol/g. The breakthrough curves of BSA overlapped independent of the residence time in the range 12-1.2 s because of negligible diffusional mass-transfer resistance. A lower phenyl-group density resulted in a higher recovery of BSA after a series of adsorption and elution steps.