Facile Synthesis of CuFe2O4 Magnetic Nanospheres with High Separation Efficiency for Histidine‐Rich Proteins

Abstract In this study, CuFe 2 O 4 magnetic nanospheres (MNSs) has been successfully synthesized through a one‐step solvothermal method using polyethylene glycol as protective agent and surface dispersant, which can reduce the size and inhibit its agglomeration of MNSs. It shows that MNSs presented a nanosphere structure, the size can be adjusted from 130 to 210 nm, has good dispersion, favorable crystallinity, magnetism and thermal stability. CuFe 2 O 4 MNSs were applied for the separation of histidine‐rich proteins, assessing their binding capacity using bovine serum albumin (BSA), bovine hemoglobin (BHb). The results demonstrated the excellent selectivity of CuFe 2 O 4 MNSs towards BHb. In selective adsorption experiments with BHb, equilibrium was reached in 10 min with a high saturation capacity of 5975 mg·g −1 . Even after 5 cycles of adsorption experiments, the separation efficiency of the CuFe 2 O 4 MNPs was still as high as 73%. In addition, CuFe 2 O 4 can successfully and selectively bind and remove the abundant BHb from the liquid samples, which shows practical application value.