Size exclusion behavior of hydroxypropylcellulose beads with temperature-dependent porosity

Beads prepared from a thermosensitive polymer, hydroxypropylcellulose, exhibit temperature-dependent porosity. At temperatures below 40 degrees C the beads are swollen having large pores, while at temperatures above 45 degrees C the beads are in a shrunken state having smaller pores. In the presence of 1 M NaCl the transition temperature decreased to about 30 degrees C. In a swollen state the size of pore is large enough to accommodate lysozyme (mol. mass 14400) and alpha-chymotrypsin (mol. mass 21600) but not bovine serum albumin (mol. mass 67000). When the beads are shrunken, all the proteins are eluted from the column packed with hydroxypropylcellulose beads in the volume close to the void volume of the column.