Characterization of synthetic adsorbents with fine particle sizes for preparative-scale chromatographic separation

Synthetic adsorbents with fine particle sizes (15–30 μm) were manufactured. These adsorbents are made of poly(styrene–divinylbenzene) and polymethacrylate, and have the same chemical structure as analytical- (5–10 μm) or industrial- (200–600 μm) grade synthetic adsorbents. Both of them have very similar porous structure to those of analytical or industrial sizes, so that they can adsorb compounds of various molecular masses. Chromatographic separation characteristics of newly manufactured fine-particle grades of synthetic adsorbents were evaluated and compared to those of analytical or industrial adsorbents. Reasonable dependency of separation performance on particle size of synthetic adsorbents was obtained. Hydraulic properties of fine-grade adsorbents had also been measured in view of column operations. Furthermore, scalability and applicability of these adsorbents for preparative-scale chromatographic separation of bioactive compounds was evaluated. Separation of soybean isoflavones and tea catechin derivatives had revealed that fine-grade synthetic adsorbents could be well applied with scalability under the same elution conditions used for analytical use. Scalability up to a 22 400-fold loading amount was achieved from a small column packed with analytical-grade adsorbent used for method development to a scale-up preparative column packed with fine-grade adsorbent used for preparative purification. These results showed the usefulness of the fine-grade synthetic adsorbents for more precise purification of bioactive compounds, including pharmaceuticals and functional food additives with higher recovery.