Recently, hybrid nanoflowers (hNFs), which are accepted
as popular
carrier supports in the development of enzyme immobilization strategies,
have attracted much attention. In this study, the horseradish peroxidase
(HRP) was immobilized to mesoporous magnetic Fe3O4–NH2 by forming Schiff base compounds and the HRP@Fe3O4–NH2/hNFs were then synthesized.
Under optimal conditions, 95.0% of the available HRP was immobilized
on the Fe3O4–NH2/hNFs. Structural
morphology and characterization of synthesized HRP@Fe3O4–NH2/hNFs were investigated. The results
demonstrated that the average size of HRP@Fe3O4–NH2/hNFs was determined to be around 220 nm. The
ζ-potential and magnetic saturation values of HRP@Fe3O4–NH2/hNFs were −33.58 mV and
∼30 emu/g, respectively. Additionally, the optimum pH,
optimum temperature, thermal stability, kinetic parameters, reusability,
and storage stability were examined. It was observed that the optimum
pH value shifted from 5.0 to pH 8.0 after immobilization, while the
optimum temperature shifted from 30 to 80 °C. K
m values were calculated to be 15.5502 and 7.6707 mM for
free HRP and the HRP@Fe3O4–NH2/hNFs, respectively, and V
max values
were calculated to be 0.0701 and 0.0038 mM min–1. The low K
m value observed after immobilization
indicated that the affinity of HRP for its substrate increased. The
HRP@Fe3O4–NH2/hNFs showed
higher thermal stability than free HRP, and its residual activity
after six usage cycles was approximately 45%. While free HRP lost
all of its activity within 120 min at 65 °C, the HRP@Fe3O4–NH2/hNFs retained almost all of its
activity during the 6 h incubation period at 80 °C. Most importantly,
the HRP@Fe3O4–NH2/hNFs demonstrated
good potential efficiency for the biodegradation of methyl orange,
phenol red, and methylene blue dyes. The HRP@Fe3O4–NH2/hNFs were used for a total of 8 cycles to
degrade methyl orange, phenol red, and methylene blue, and degradation
of around 81, 96, and 56% was obtained in 8 h, respectively. Overall,
we believe that the HRP@Fe3O4–NH2/hNFs reported in this work can be potentially used in various
industrial and environmental applications, particularly for the biodegradation
of recalcitrant compounds, such as textile dyes.