Abstract: The adsorption capacity of mesoporous silicate (MPS) materials as an adsorbent for protein adsorption from the aqueous phase and the mechanism of the adsorption processes by comparative analyses of the applicability of five kinetic transfer models, pseudo-first-order model, pseudo-second-order model, Elovich kinetic model, Bangham’s equation model, and intraparticle diffusion model, were investigated. A mixture of tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) and triblock copolymer as a template was stirred, hydrothermally treated to form the mesoporous SBA-15 structure, and heat-treated at 550°C to form the MPS material, SBA-15. The synthesized SBA-15 was immersed in a phosphate buffered saline (PBS) solution containing cytochrome c for 2, 48, and 120 hours at 4°C. The TEM observations of proteins on/in mesoporous SBA-15 revealed the protein behaviors. The holes of the MPS materials were observed to overlap those of the stained proteins for the first 2 hours of immersion. The stained proteins were observed between primary particles and partly inside the mesoporous channels in the MPS material when it had been immersed for 48 hours. For MPS when it had been immersed for 120 hours, stained proteins were observed in almost all meso-scale channels of MPS. The time profiles for adsorption of proteins can be described well by Bangham’s equation model and the intraparticle diffusion model. The Bangham’s equation model is based on the assumption that pore diffusion was the only rate controlling step during adsorption, whose contribution to the overall mechanism of cytochrome c adsorption on SBA-15 should not be neglected. The kinetic curves obtained from the experiment for cytochrome c adsorption on SBA-15 could show the three steps: the initial rapid increase of the adsorbed amount of cytochrome c, the second gradual increase, and the final equilibrium stage. These three adsorption steps can be interpreted well by the multi-linearity of the intraparticle diffusion model, proving the significant role of intraparticle diffusion as one of the rate controlling mechanisms.
