Effective adsorption and separation of lysozyme with PAA-modified Fe3O4@silica core/shell microspheres

Submicron-size Fe3O4@silica core/shell microspheres were prepared by sol-gel method. Through coating inert silica shell and adjusting the thickness, the dispersibility of magnetic microspheres in water was greatly improved. The resultant Fe3O4@silica microspheres with controllable saturation magnetization between 34.3 emu/g and 47.3 emu/g were superparamagnetic. All as-prepared magnetic composite microspheres possessed fleetly magnetic responsivity. The PAA-modified Fe3O4@siliCa microspheres were used for selective adsorption and separation of lysozyme, and the experimental results showed that the maximum binding capacity is about 127 mg/g. After surface modification of Fe3O4@siliCa with polyacrylic acid (PAA) flexible chains, the binding capacity of Fe3O4@silica-g-PAA microspheres for lysozyme were 22 times as much as that of pure Fe3O4@silica microspheres at the same pH condition. (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier Inc.