Study of thermosensitive polymeric reversed micelles for Candida rugosa lipase immobilization

Abstract

Reversed micelles are a well-known immobilization technology. Immobilized enzymes in reversed micelles have been widely investigated. However, few functional polymeric surfactants have been reported. The aim of this work is to design thermo-sensitive polymeric reversed micelles for the enzymes immobilization, which will provide an advantage on the reuse and recovery of enzymes. Therefore, alkyl end-capped (PNIPAAm-co-AA) has been prepared and characterized. Then, reversed micelles immobilized enzymes are fabricated. The aggregation behaviour in the mixture organic solvents is studied by comparing to that of AOT. The activity and enantioselectivity studies are carried on by immobilizing Candida rugosa lipase in the thermally responsive polymeric reversed micelles. We find that the enzymatic reaction could be terminated and the immobilized enzymes could be recovered from the reaction system by simply increasing the environmental temperature to a value slightly higher than the LCST of surfactants. Our results indicate that these thermally responsive reversed micelles may make a promising system for the immobilization of catalytic enzymes for the synthesis of chiral pharmaceuticals.