Bioseparations in aqueous micellar systems based on excluded-volume interactions

Protein partitioning based on micellar-induced excluded-vol. interactions is studied for different aq. nonionic micellar systems. In particular, protein partitioning in the traditional aq. micellar two-phase system is compared with a system where a gel phase is combined with a micellar phase and with a membrane system with micelles at the feed side of the membrane. A two-phase system is created using cylindrically-shaped n-decyl tetra(ethylene oxide) (C10E4) micelles that are too large to diffuse into the gel-bead or across the membrane. Results are reported for the partition coeff. of single-component protein systems with myoglobin, ovalbumin, and BSA, and for binary protein mixts. The individual protein partition coeffs. in the mixts. follow the same protein concn. dependence as the partition coeff. obtained for the single-component protein solns. [on SciFinder (R)]