Characterization of supermacroporous monolithic polyacrylamide based matrices designed for chromatography of bioparticles

Supermacroporous monolithic acrylamide (AAm)-based cryogels were prepared by radical cryo-polymerizaton (polymerization in the moderately frozen system) of AAm with functional monomers and cross-linker N,N'-methylene-bis-acrylamide (MBAAm). Electron microscopy studies revealed supermacroporous structure of the developed cryogels with pore size of 5-100 microm. Cryogel porosity depended on cryo-polymerization conditions. More than 90% of the monolithic bed volume is the interconnected supermacropores filled with water and less than 10% of the monolithic volume is pore walls. The total protein binding capacity (lysozyme in the case of immobilized metal affinity chromatography (IMAC) column and bovine serum albumin (BSA) in the case of anion-exchange (AE) column) was independent of the flow rates till 600 cm/h. Chromatographic behavior of E. coli cells when a cell suspension was applied to ion-exchange cryogel columns depended on both the density of functional ligand and the porosity of the cryogel.