Subtractive chromatography for purification and recovery of nano-bioproducts.

A novel polymer-coated adsorbent (subtractive adsorbent) has been manufactured and evaluated for the recovery of nanoparticle bioproducts. The core principle was to coat inert macroporous polymers (e.g. agarose) upon adsorbent beads of varied ligands. Here BSA nanoparticles, with an average nanoparticle diameter 95 nm, were fabricated and selected as feedstock for the demonstration of the principle. The adsorption of a mixture of fluorescently labelled BSA solution and BSA nanoparticles was investigated in a batch binding experiment upon polymer-coated Streamline DEAE and visualised by laser scanning confocal microscopy. The mechanistic design of such adsorbents and their basic application for the recovery of target nano-bioproducts from complex feedstock is strongly indicated.