Highly efficient and recyclable monolithic bioreactor for interfacial enzyme catalysis.

ABSTRACT

HYPOTHESIS: Biocatalysts are key to the realization of all bioconversions in nature. However, the difficulty of combining the biocatalyst and other chemicals in one system limits their application in artificial reaction systems. Although some effort, such as Pickering interfacial catalysis and enzyme-immobilized microchannel reactors, have addressed this challenge an effective method to combine chemical substrates and biocatalysts in a highly efficient and re-usable monolith system is still to be developed. EXPERIMENTS A repeated batch-type biphasic interfacial biocatalysis microreactor was developed using enzyme-loaded polymersomes in the void surface of porous monoliths. Polymersomes, loaded with Candida antarctica Lipase B (CALB), are fabricated by self-assembly of the copolymer PEO-b-P(St-co-TMI) and used to stabilize oil-in-water (o/w) Pickering emulsions as a template to prepare monoliths. By adding monomer and Tween 85 to the continuous phase, controllable open-cell monoliths are prepared to inlay CALB-loaded polymersomes in the pore walls. FINDINGS: The microreactor is proven to be highly effective and recyclable when a substrate flows through it, which offers superior benefits of absolute separation to a pure product and no enzyme loss. The relative enzyme activity is constantly maintained above 93% in 15 cycles. The enzyme is constantly present in the microenvironment of the PBS buffer ensuring its immunity to inactivation and facilitating its recycling.