Cellulose nanocrystal hybrid hydrogel with immobilized enzyme as heterogeneous biocatalyst for phenolic molecules oxidation

摘要

Abstract Enzyme biocatalysts have been widely used in industrial processes; however, enzyme is difficult to separate from the reaction solution due to the homogeneous nature of biocatalyst. Hence, the cellulose nanocrystal hydrogel containing aldehyde-cellulose nanocrystal (CNCs-CHO), 2-aminoethyl methacrylate hydrochloride (AMH), itaconic acid-laccase (ITA-LAC) and N, N'-methylenebisacrylamide (MBA) as the cross-linker are synthesized using Schiff-base and APS-initiated radical polymerization, yielding the LAC-loaded heterogeneous biocatalyst. The influence of the composition on the mechanical properties, morphology, swelling behavior and permeability is investigated. The higher enzymatic activity is achieved when more CNCs are introduced into hydrogel since the incorporation of CNCs enhances permeability of hydrogel. The reusability of the LAC-loaded hybrid hydrogel is shown for 10 cycles with remaining activities of 71%. The degradation of four phenolic molecules is from 55 to 73% using Lac-loaded hybrid hydrogel as heterogeneous biocatalyst. The LAC-loaded hybrid hydrogel is used to run enzymatic reaction in a simple flow-through device which give a potential application in industry.Graphical Abstract