Manipulation of pore structure during manufacture of agarose microspheres for bioseparation.

Agarose microspheres with a controllable pore structure were manufactured by varying agarose types and crosslinking degrees. Various agarose could tailor the gel formation of microspheres matrix and thus affect the final pore structures. Small pores in microspheres could be fabricated by agarose with a higher molecular weight, which was demonstrated by the packed column with lower distribution coefficient (Kav ) values measured by gel filtration chromatography. Further, higher Kav values also demonstrated that more and larger pores were formed with increasing the crosslinking degree of agarose microspheres. Either using agarose with a high molecular weight or increasing the crosslinking degree would finally lead to the enhancement of the flow rate during flow performance of packed column as necessary for improving separation efficiency. This provides a foundation for high-resolution chromatography with a controllable separation range as beneficial for downstream process.