A metal ion charged mixed matrix membrane for selective adsorption of hemoglobin

• Copper ion charged membrane (MMM) for specific bovine hemoglobin (BHb) adsorption.
• The MMM has significant low pressure drop and no aggregation of BHb.
• The maximum static BHb adsorption of MMM was higher than literature.
• Adsorption of BHb in dynamic mode on MMM was high and faster than static mode.

In this work, we developed a mixed matrix membrane by incorporating 20–40 μm size iminodiacetic acid modified immobeads within porous Ethylene vinyl alcohol (EVAL) polymer matrix. The MMM were charged with copper ions for selective adsorption of bovine hemoglobin in presence of bovine serum albumin. EVAL membrane without immobead and immobead alone showed low non-specific adsorption towards bovine hemoglobin and bovine serum albumin. Use of buffers with pH ⩽6.8 i.e. pI of bovine hemoglobin resulted in high bovine hemoglobin adsorption. The developed mixed matrix membrane has a maximum static adsorption capacity of 219.5 mg bovine hemoglobin per g bead and the adsorption isotherm curve is of a Langmuir type. Under similar flow rates, the mixed matrix membrane showed significant low pressure drop compared to a packed bed column containing equal amount of beads. Maximum and faster (6 h) adsorption of bovine hemoglobin can be achieved through dynamic mode only using mixed matrix membrane and not by packed bed column and static mode of mixed matrix membrane. The mixed matrix membrane has three times selective adsorption of bovine hemoglobin than bovine serum albumin, from a binary mixture containing equivalent amounts of both proteins.