Engineering HDR Seminar Series No.9, 2015

9 February 2015, 10:00

Room 5403

Aqueous two-phase system (ATPS) has been gaining popularity in the downstream processing of proteins owing to its capability of providing a biocompatible environment for the partitioning of biomaterials between two phases. Recently, ionic liquid (IL) has been viewed as a potential replacement for the traditional volatile organic solvent in many different fields including bioseparation. IL is regarded as a ‘green’ solvent mainly due to its extremely low volatility and non-flammability under ambient condition.. However, the conventional ILs (e.g. imidazolium or pyridinium cations and halide-containing anions) exhibit undesirable properties like high toxicity and poor biodegradability, which hinder their practical application in the protein purification. Unlike these conventional ILs, an IL composed of choline (as cation) and amino acid (as anion) is deemed to be a more environmentally benign candidate for forming a new class of IL-based ATPS. In this research, the liquid-liquid equilibrium data for ATPSs composed of choline-amino-acids ILs and a recyclable thermo-sensitive polymer poly(propylene glycol) 400 (PPG 400) were determined experimentally at T=298.15 K. In addition, the effects of pH and the addition of sodium chloride (NaCl) on the partition coefficients of model proteins in choline amino acetate + PPG 400 ATPS were evaluated. The results showed that the partitioning of protein could be influenced by the pH and the concentration of NaCl in the ATPS. With an understanding of the partitioning behavior of target protein in the choline-based IL ATPS, a robust protein purification using the ATPS could be attained. Contact details : Wan Nurul Rukiah Wan Rasdi wan.nurul@monash.edu@eng.monash.edu.my Tel: 03-55146224