Fabrication and Characterization of a Dye-Immobilized Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia Pellicular Adsorbent for Expanded Bed Adsorption Chromatography

This study deals with the fabrication and characterization of a pellicular adsorbent appropriate for the expanded bed adsorption (EBA) process. The synthesized adsorbent has an yttria-stabilized zirconia nucleus coated with agarose. Morphological analysis of the coated particles was performed by light-scattering microscopy and showed an average diameter of 197.54 and 202.25 µm, for the nucleus and coated particle, respectively. A screening for the reactive dyes reactive blue 19 (RB19), reactive blue 21 (RB21) and reactive orange 107 (RO107) was performed after immobilization onto the pellicular adsorbent by changing the pH, aiming at finding the binding capacity of these to adsorb bovine serum albumin (BSA). The reactive orange 107 was selected and it was more stable at pH 4.5. Study of the kinetics between BSA and the dye-immobilized particle showed that equilibrium is reached before 1 h. The adsorption isotherm of BSA onto RO107-immobilized adsorbent fitted the Langmuir model showing a q_m = 102.328 mg BSA/mL of adsorbent. The pellicular adsorbent also showed good expansion even at a high operating flow rate. Therefore, at a linear velocity as high as 2725 cm/h, a dynamic capacity of 15.7 mg of BSA/mL of adsorbent was obtained.