Separation and purification of papain with Cibacron Blue F3GA carrying electrospun nylon/cellulose acetate nanofiber affinity membrane

Electrospun nylon-6/cellulose acetate nanofibrous composite membrane were prepared and employed as affinity membrane materials for papain adsorption due to their excellent chemical and thermal resistance as well as high wettability, where the fiber diameters were in the range of 80-350 nm. Cibacron Blue (CB) F3GA was immobilized on the composite membranes, where the content of CB F3GA was 116.4 mol/g membrane. The purification ability of the affinity membrane was evaluated, where pawpaw powder containing papain was used as a model impurity. Ten layers of the affinity membrane were packed in a spin column to separate papain from pawpaw powder solution. Significant amount of the adsorbed papain (about 90.6%) was eluted by 1.0MNaSCN at pH 8.0. Experiments on regeneration and dynamic adsorption were also performed. It appears that CB F3GA-nylon/cellulose nanofibrous membranes can be applied for papain separation without causing any denaturation.