Novel thiophilic ligands based on sulfone structures were synthesized for the fast high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) purification of antibodies. In order to better characterize these new structures, affinity constants were measured as well as the influence of pH and salt on adsorption and elution. Efficient and fast purification of antibodies from ascites and serum was achieved. The purification of antibodies from cell culture supernatant proved difficult due the indicator pheno-red of the growth media. Two thiophilic structures turned out to be protein adsorbents, which adsorbed all proteins loaded and from which no protein could be eluted under normal conditions.