Membrane and Bioseparation

Abstract

Although one of the strongest methods of purification is chromatography, the major problem of porous bed chromatography is that purification takes place using the diffusion. This will prolong the purification process and bring down the efficiency. In recent years, membrane methods have greatly overcome this limitation due to low membrane thickness, low pressure drop, and convective flow, and they are a great alternative to chromatography columns. Unfortunately, the membranes have a low surface area. For solving such problem, membrane modification with polymeric brushes and layer-by-layer adsorption in polyelectrolyte films can be attractive. Accordingly, in this chapter we introduce types of biomolecule purification methods, the best purification method, membrane modification techniques, and their limitations and assets. Also, we introduce the membrane as an attractive tool for selective purification and separation of biomolecules.