Nanoscale materials for proten separation
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doi:10.1016/S0015-1882(03)00521-4Get rights and content
In recent years chemists and material scientists have avidly searched for ways to make materials with nanoscale pores, i.e. channels comparable in size to organic molecules, which could be used, among other things, to separate proteins by size. Researchers at Cornell University, USA, recently developed a method to ‘self-assemble’ such structures by using organic polymers to guide the formation of ceramic structures. Now the same researchers have advanced another step by incorporating tiny magnetic particles of iron oxide into the walls of porous ceramic structures. It has been suggested that such materials could be used to separate proteins tagged with magnetic materials, or in catalytic processes.
The research team has created porous structures by mixing organic polymers with silica-type ceramics. Under the right conditions the materials self-assemble into polymer channels surrounded by a polymer-ceramic composite. This is then ‘calcined’ or exposed to extreme heat to vaporize organic components, leaving a ceramic honeycomb, with tiny pores. By controlling the polymer molecular weight and the relative