Smart bio-separation materials

Abstract Tremendous advances of life science and biotechnology industry have raised the higher requirement for bio-separation. Current chromatographic and related separation techniques have been refined to such a degree that they present efficient separation capacity towards complex samples in proteomics, pharmaceuticals and food industry. Nevertheless, new breakthroughs, like higher selectivity, more controllable separation mode, lower cost, and milder operation conditions, are still highly desirable in more complicated application scenarios. Smart materials that could reversibly change their structures and properties responding to external stimuli as novel separation media provide an ideal solution to upgrade current separation techniques. In this review, recent advances on smart materials in bio-separation applications are intensively discussed, with an emphasize on the superiority of smart materials in improving the separation performance by a controlled mode. And current challenges encountered and conceivable solutions are also presented to benefit prospective development in design and applications of smart bio-separation materials.