Facile Synthesis of CuFe2O4 Magnetic Nanospheres with High Separation Efficiency for Histidine-Rich Proteins

Abstract

In this study, CuFe₂O₄ magnetic nanospheres (MNSs) has been successfully synthesized through a one-step solvothermal method using polyethylene glycol as protective agent and surface dispersant, which can reduce the size and inhibit its agglomeration of MNSs. It shows that MNSs presented a nanosphere structure, the size can be adjusted from 130 to 210 nm, has good dispersion, favorable crystallinity, magnetism and thermal stability. CuFe₂O₄ MNSs were applied for the separation of histidine-rich proteins, assessing their binding capacity using bovine serum albumin (BSA), bovine hemoglobin (BHb). The results demonstrated the excellent selectivity of CuFe₂O₄ MNSs towards BHb. In selective adsorption experiments with BHb, equilibrium was reached in 10 min with a high saturation capacity of 5975 mg·g⁻¹. Even after 5 cycles of adsorption experiments, the separation efficiency of the CuFe₂O₄ MNPs was still as high as 73%. In addition, CuFe₂O₄ can successfully and selectively bind and remove the abundant BHb from the liquid samples, which shows practical application value.