Transport and separation of proteins across platinum-coated nanoporous alumina membranes

In this work, we report the selective transport of three proteins, bovine serum albumin (BSA), lysozyme (Lys) and myoglobin (Mb) across a conductive nanoporous alumina membrane. The membrane was made conductive via a physical metal sputtering process. The initial fluxes of three different proteins transported across the platinum-coated membrane with nano-sized channels were compared under varying potentials applied across the membrane. The method was 10–16 times more selective for the Lys cations than for BSA anions and 4–5 times more selective for the neutral Mb molecules than for BSA anions.