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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Peoria, Illinois » National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research » Plant Polymer Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #230158
Title: Application of Kevin-Voigt Model in Quantifying Whey Protein Adsorption on Polyethersulfone Using QCM-D

Author
item Liu, Sean
item KIM, JUN-TAE - CORNELL UNIVERSITY

Submitted to: Journal of Laboratory Automation
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/15/2009
Publication Date: 8/1/2009
Citation: Liu, S.X., Kim, J. 2009. Application of Kevin-Voigt Model in Quantifying Whey Protein Adsorption on Polyethersulfone Using QCM-D. JALA 14(1):213-220.

Interpretive Summary: The study of protein adsorption on the membrane surface is of great importance to cheese-making processors that use polymeric membrane-based processes to recover whey protein from the process waste streams. The study of protein adsorption using quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM-D) makes it easier to precisely monitor and quantify the amount of proteins adsorbed onto the polymer surface in real time. The ability of the software that accompanies the QCM-D instrument to predict the minute amount of the mass of the protein on the surface and the structural properties of the adsorbed protein requires a suitable mathematical model to convert the data of frequency and dissipation shift responses generated from the QCM-D instrument into the mass and viscoelastic properties of the proteins adsorbed on the surface at given times. In this study, data recorded by a QCM-D apparatus were fitted into the Kevin-Voigt viscoelastic model, to quantify the whey protein adsorption on the polyethersulfone membrane surface. The information obtained from the study enables the cheese-makers or other users of membrane processes for whey protein concentrations/separations to optimize their membrane operations for processing whey protein and cleaning of membrane units.

Technical Abstract: The study of protein adsorption on the membrane surface is of great importance to cheese-making processors that use polymeric membrane-based processes to recover whey protein from the process waste streams. Quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM-D) is a lab-scale, fast analytical technique that can precisely monitor and quantify the amount of proteins adsorbed onto the polymer surface in real time. The ability of the software that accompanies the instrument to predict the minute amount of the mass of the protein on the surface and the structural properties of the adsorbed protein requires a suitable mathematical model to convert the data of frequency and dissipation shift responses generated from the QCM-D apparatus into the mass and viscoelastic properties of the proteins adsorbed on the surface at given times. In this study, data recorded by a QCM-D apparatus were fitted into the Kevin-Voigt model, to quantify the whey protein adsorption on the polyethersulfone membrane surface.