Affinity binding of proteins to the modified bacterial cellulose nanofibers.

The potential of the modified bacterial cellulose (BC) nanofibers was determined bearing metal ion coordination interactions to enhance the protein adsorption and binding capacity. Thus, a household synthesized metal chelating monomer, namely N-methacryloyl-l-histidine methylester (MAH), and a commercial metal chelating monomer, namely 4-vinylimidazole (VIm), were used to complex with metal ions Cu(II) and Ni(II) respectively for the synthesis of the modified BC nanofibers. The modified nanofibers were characterized by FT-IR, SEM and EDX measurements. The protein adsorption tests were carried out using hemoglobin as a model protein and it was determined that the maximum adsorption capacity of hemoglobin onto the modified BC nanofibers was found as 47.40mg/g. The novel strategy for the preparation of metal chelated nanofibers was developed.