Mesoporous carbide-derived carbon for cytokine removal from blood plasma

Porous carbons can be used for purification of bio-fluids due to their excellent biocompatibility with blood.Since the ability to adsorb a range of inflammatory cytokines within the shortest possible time is crucial tostop the progression of sepsis, the improvement of the adsorption rate is a key factor to achieving efficientremoval of cytokines. Here, we demonstrate the effect of synthesis temperatures (from 600 C to 1200 C),carbon particle sizes (from below35 mmto300 mm), and annealing conditions (Ar, NH3, H2, Cl2, and vacuumannealing) that determine the surface chemistry, on the ability of carbide-derived carbons (CDCs) to removecytokines TNF-a, IL-6, and IL-1b from blood plasma. Optimization of CDC processing and structure leads toup to two orders of magnitude increase in the adsorption rate. Mesoporous CDCs that were produced at800 C from Ti2AlC with the precursor particle size of <35 mm and annealed in NH3, displayed completeremoval of large molecules of TNF-a in less than an hour, with >85% and >95% TNF-a removal in 5 and30 min, respectively. This is a very significant improvement compared to the previously published results forCDC (90% TNF-a removal after 1 h) and activated carbons. Smaller interleukin IL-6 and IL-1b molecules canbe completely removed within 5 min. These differences in adsorption rates show that carbons withcontrolled porosity can also be used for separation of protein molecules.