Protein adsorption on electrospun zinc doped hydroxyapatite containing nylon 6 membrane: kinetics and isotherm

Surface modification of electrospun polymeric membrane surfaces is a critical step towards the separation process including protein adsorption. In this study, the electrospun Nylon fibers was incorporated with positively charged zinc doped hydroxyapatite (HAp) nanoparticles to study the adsorption of negatively charged proteins, namely bovine serum albumin (BSA). Effects of zinc amount within the atomic structure of HAp (nZH; n=0, 4, 8 At.%) was evaluated on produced scaffolds and consequently protein adsorption. The results showed that the ability of Nylon membrane to adsorb BSA increased with incorporation of nZH nanoparticles within the nylon structure. This phenomenon is appeared to be relate to different electrostatic charge and not to physical characteristic of scaffolds. The incorporated membrane (N-4ZH) by nanoparticles with highest zeta (ξ) potential adsorbed the maximum amount of protein. The adsorption of BSA was best fitted with pseudo-second order kinetic model. The experimental isotherm data were further analyzed by using Langmuir and Freundlich equations. By comparing the correlation coefficients obtained for each linear transformation of isotherm analysis, it was found that the Langmuir equation was the best fit equilibrium model that described the adsorption of BSA on these membranes.