ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses factors which have to be considered in high-performance ion-exchange chromatography (IEC) of proteins and provides some representative applications of this technique to the purification of enzymes. Factors which have an influence on IEC of proteins have been systematically examined in the last years, for example, column packing materials and support pore diameter, mobile phase composition, column length, separation time, and temperature. Two types of ionic stationary phases have been used in IEC of proteins: weak or strong exchanging groups. Various ions have been characterized with regard to their displacing power in IEC of proteins. The velocity of the mobile phase has been shown to have an influence on the resolution of proteins in IEC. IEC has been used for the separation of a variety of proteins for analytical or preparative purposes. Many examples already exist in the literature for the application of IEC to the purification of water soluble enzymes from various sources.
