Effect of pH on protein adsorption capacity of strong cation exchangers with grafted layer

The effect of pH on the static adsorption capacity of immunoglobulin G, human serum albumin, and equine myoglobin was investigated for a set of five strong cation exchangers with the grafted tentacle layer having a different ligand density. A sharp maximum of adsorption capacity with pH was observed for adsorbents with a high ligand density. The results were elucidated using the protein structure and calculations of pKa of ionizable groups of surface basic residues. Inverse size-exclusion experiments were carried out to understand the relation between the adsorption capacity and pore accessibility of the investigated proteins.