Abstract

Hybrid nanostructures of polyaniline, magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles, and nano clay have been synthesized to serve as nanocarriers for the covalent immobilization of β-glucosidase (β-Glu), fructosyltransferase (FTase) and carboxymethyl cellulase (CMCase) individually. The resulting nano polyaniline iron oxide@Clays has been characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), EDX and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR). Each immobilized enzyme supported on the produced nanocarrier underwent rounds of evaluation of its activity using each enzyme substrate. The immobilization process showed that enzyme recycling was influenced by the type and properties of the nano mixture and the enzyme itself. The immobilized β-Glu was shown to be reusable and retained approximately 100% of its activity after repeated use for 20 cycles. Whereas for FTase, only 30% of the biocatalyst's activity was lost after 10 more cycles, demonstrating the remarkable operational stability of the immobilized FTase. These properties and the facile separation from the reaction medium by application of a magnetic field demonstrate that the polyaniline-iron oxide@Clays nanoparticles can be used as efficient carriers for both enzymes. On the other hand, CMCase could only be reused four times on all types of immobilizations supports.