Facile approaches to immobilize biomolecules in porous solid materials are desired for bioprocessing and industrial applications. Swellable organically modified silica (SOMS) is a high surface area (&gt;400 m<sup>2</sup>/g) porous material that can adsorb 3 times its volume of organic solvents. SOMS in the swollen state has been found to spontaneously and irreversibly adsorb &gt;600 mg/g of protein. It was hypothesized that the porous nature of SOMS would allow access of exogenous substrates to enzyme immobilized in 0.15-0.25 mm particles. The activity of SOMS entrapped acid phosphatase and glucose oxidase was measured as a function of temperature and denaturing conditions. It was found that the specific activity of immobilized acid phosphatase was 2-13% of free enzyme depending on mass loaded. Immobilization of phosphatase showed the same thermal denaturation profile as free enzyme. The mechanism of biomolecule adsorption was studied by measuring adsorption capacity at various solution conditions (pH, ionic strength, surfactant addition). The effect of size of the biomolecule on adsorption capacity was also measured. Data suggest that biomolecules are immobilized by physical entrapment mechanism rather than surface adsorption. The application of SOMS immobilized enzymes to bioprocessing applications will be discussed.

reagent-free immobilization of acid phosphatase, amylase and glucose oxidase in pore-expanding mesoporous silica

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.