Supramolecular Ionic Liquid Gels for Enzyme Entrapment

Abstract

Reported herein is an entrapment method for enzyme immobilization that does not require the formation of new covalent bonds. Ionic liquid supramolecular gels are formed containing enzymes that can be shaped into gel beads and act as recyclable immobilized biocatalysts. The gel was formed from two components, a hydrophobic phosphonium ionic liquid and a low molecular weight gelator derived from the amino acid phenylalanine. Gel-entrapped lipase from Aneurinibacillus thermoaerophilus was recycled for 10 runs over 3 days without loss of activity and retained activity for at least 150 days. The procedure does not form covalent bonds upon gel formation, which is supramolecular, and no bonds are formed between the enzyme and the solid support.

Supramolecular gels – a panorama of low-molecular-weight gelators from ancient origins to next-generation technologies

“…349 Recently, Marr and co-workers have immobilised enzymes in supramolecular ionic liquid gels, achieving good reactivity. 350 They shaped the system as gel beads to enable the reactions to be easily performed and facilitate recycling.…”

Short Peptides for Hydrolase Supramolecular Mimicry and Their Potential Applications

“…They have also been immobilized on a substrate for improved stability and for the ease of recycling [ 45 , 46 ]. In particular, the use of gel phases to immobilize lipases for enhanced performance has been reported, including organogels [ 47 ], emulsion gels [ 48 ], hydrogel microspheres [ 49 , 50 ], ionic gels [ 51 ], discontinuous hydrogel-organogel hybrids [ 52 ], and composite gels [ 53 ].…”

Heteropolysaccharide-Based Coacervate Microdroplets as Enzyme Carriers for Detection of Cholesterol

“…However, the activity of free enzyme can easily be irreversibly affected on enzyme activity due to changes in the external environment, which greatly limits the application of the enzyme in practical production. Consequently, researchers have developed different strategies for immobilizing enzymes to improve their stability, such as surface adsorption, encapsulation embedding, cross-linking, and covalent bonding strategies . Among them, the encapsulation strategy of enzymes can be realized by different materials, such as colloidal capsules, metal–organic frameworks, protein cages, etc., but their drawbacks of limited enzyme–substrate mass transfer and complex preparation have also restricted its subsequent development.…”