Adsorption of Bovine Serum Albumin onto Mesocellular Silica Foams with Differently Sized Cells and Windows

Abstract

As a model protein with quite large dimensions, Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) has been used to evaluate the influence of the distinct pore structural characteristics of three mesocellular foam (MCF) materials prepared with or without the addition of ammonium fluoride and with varying 1,3,5-trimethylbenzene/Pluronic P123 (TMB/P123) ratios. SBA-15 was also studied for comparative purposes. Characterisation by X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy confirmed the characteristic spheroid cell structure of the MCF pores. Nitrogen adsorption/desorption isotherms at 77 K revealed the different pore structural parameters of the MCF, viz. pore volume (1.8–2.4 cm3/g), cell size (24.6–28.5 nm) and window size (11.3–17.3 nm), as obtained by the NLDFT method. The equilibrium adsorption isotherms and the kinetic adsorption data for BSA at 298 K and pH 5 were well fitted by the Langmuir model and pseudo-second-order kinetic model, respectively. The results showed that adsorption onto the material possessing a window size of 11.3 nm was mostly restricted to the external surface, while a considerable increase in the maximum adsorption capacity from 120 mg/g to 500–600 mg/g was observed when the window size was above the critical dimension of 13.9 nm. In the latter cases, the maximum adsorption capacities could be related to the pore volume rather than to the total surface area. The confined BSA molecules were strongly immobilised in the cells, since only a small proportion was desorbed from the material with windows of 17.3 nm dimensions on contact with a buffer solution of pH 7.