The role of polymer nanolayer architecture on the separation performance of anion-exchange membrane adsorbers: part II. DNA and virus separations.

The surface-initiated polymerization protocol developed in part I was used to prepare strong anion-exchange membranes with variable polymer chain graft densities and degrees of polymerization for DNA and virus particle separations. A focus of part II was to evaluate the role of polymer nanolayer architecture on DNA and virus binding. Salmon sperm-DNA (SS-DNA) was used as model nucleic acid to measure the dynamic-binding capacities at 10% breakthrough. The dynamic-binding capacity increases linearly with increasing poly ([2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl]trimethylammonium chloride) chain density up to the highest chain density used in this study. The new membranes yielded threefold higher SS-DNA-binding capacity (30 mg/mL) than a leading commercial membrane with the same functional group chemistry. Elution of bound DNA yielded a sharp peak, and resulted in a 13-fold increase relative to the feed concentration. This concentration effect further demonstrates the highly favorable transport properties of the newly designed Q-type membranes. However, unlike findings in part I on protein binding, SS-DNA binding was not fully reversible. Minute virus of mice (MVM) was used as model virus to evaluate the virus clearance performance of newly designed Q-type membranes. Log reduction of virus (LRV) of MVM increased with increasing polymer chain density. Membranes exhibited >4.5 LRV for the given MVM impurity load and may be capable of higher LRV values, as the MVM concentration in the flow-through fraction of these samples was below the limit of detection of the assay.