Adsorptive media for chromatography, particularly ion-exchange chromatography, derived from a shaped fiber. In certain embodiments, the functionalized shaped fiber presents a fibrillated or ridged structure which greatly increases the surface area of the fibers when compared to ordinary fibers. Also disclosed herein is a method to add surface pendant functional groups that provides cation-exchange or anion-exchange functionality to the high surface area fibers. This pendant functionality is useful for the ion-exchange chromatographic purification of biomolecules, such as monoclonal antibodies (mAbs).