Perfusive ion-exchange chromatographic materials with high capacity

• Novel macro-porous particles exhibit high particle mass transfer.
• Perfusion through the particle improves mass transfer.
• Brush functionalization enables high binding capacity.
• New particles with better separation properties than commercial materials.

In this work, novel macro-porous chromatographic stationary phases, combining low mass transfer resistance and high binding capacity, were thoroughly characterized in terms of porosity, HETP, resolution and binding capacity. These new stationary phases exhibited better performance compared to commercially available materials, i.e. Poros 50HS and Fractogel EMD SO3 (M). With the technique of reactive gelation under shear, it is possible to produce particles with pores from 100 nm to several microns, in which part of the flow can go through. This way, the mass transport inside the particles is significantly increased with perfusive flow faction values between 0.02 and 0.01. Despite the low pore surface area resulting from the large pore size, high binding capacity is obtained by functionalizing the pore surface with charged polymeric brushes resulting in a binding capacity in the range from 25 to 140 mg/mL col. This, together with the high mass transfer, gives excellent resolution performance and dynamic binding capacity compared to other commercial materials even at high flow rates.