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There are many different chromatographic supports on market. Although main part of them are particle shaped supports, the so-called monoliths are becoming increasingly more important. Particle based supports are commonly uniform-sized of some micron with high porosity. The pores are required to increase the specific surface area and, as a consequence, to increase the binding capacity. Since the pores are closed on one side, the liquid inside them is stagnant and the movement of molecules is governed by diffusion. Therefore, to obtain a good separation and a high binding capacity, low flow rates should commonly be applied. This results in flowdependent resolution of the separation and dynamic binding capacity.

In contrast to conventional porous particles the morphological characteristics of CIM supports are characterised by a single monolithic unit that contains pores, opened on both sides. These pores are highly interconnected forming a flow-through a network. All the mobile phase is forced to run through these open pores, therefore, the mass transfer between stationary and mobile phases is based on convective flow. One of the key features of monolithic units is their pore size distribution that should enable low back pressure at high throughputs together with high specific surface area, needed for high binding capacity.

In this work, dynamic characteristics of CIM disks bearing weak anion exchange groups for binding Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) were studied. Reproducibility was checked and protein concentration as well as the flow rate were varied. Preliminary results confirm the flow independence of the dynamic binding capacity in the whole range of applied flow rates.

CIM (Convective Interaction Media) represent a new generation of chromatographic supports. In contrast to conventional particle supports, where the void volume between individual porous particles is unavoidable, CIM supports consist of a single monolith with open channels. In this way, molecules to be separated are transported into the pores by convection, resulting in short separation times.

CIMsupports proved to be very efficient for extremely fast separations of proteins in ion exchange, hydrophobic interaction and affinity chromatography mode. Recently, the successful separation of DNA as well as some smaller molecules like e.g. peptides and oligonucleotides were also performed.

All the above mentioned separations were carried out on an analytical scale with the use of 0.34 mL CIM discs. The scale-up of monolithic units was limited mainly due to the problems associated to the mechanical stability, poor sample distribution and higher backpressures. The change from the axial to radial flow enables the design of the so-called 8 and 80mLCIM tubes. They were basically designed for very fast purification of macromolecules.

In this work we present some basic characteristics of these newly developed units in terms of separation and binding capacity. In addition, some practical examples will be given and discussed as well.

White rot fungus Phanerochaete chrysosporium produces under nitrogen limitation extracellular lignin peroxidases (LiP). They are able to partially depolymerize lignin and to oxidise several xenobiotics (DDT, PCB, PAH,…) and synthetic dyes. Trough HPLC separation and isoelectric focusing multiple molecular forms of LiP have been determined and isolated from the culture filtrate. Depending on growth conditions, separation technique, strain employed and culture age 2-15 different LiP izoenzymes were observed in culture media of Phanerochaete chrysosporium. They are structurally similar but differ in stability, quantity and in catalytic properties. For the isolation of LiP from growth medium, mostly the procedure employing HPLC ionexchange columns as shown on Scheme 1 is used. For the separation of LiP isoenzymes from the culture filtrate, we used CIM (Convective Interaction Media) units. Their advantage is very fast separation of macromolecules due to their particular threedimensional structure. In contrast to particle supports containing closed pores, CIM units consist of monolith porous material containing flow through pores. Therefore, macromolecules to be separated are transported to the active site by convection rather than by diffusion. As a consequence, the separation resolution and dynamic binding capacity are flow independent. As such CIM units can be advantageous also for lignin peroxidase isoenzymes separation and purification.