Fluorescence characterization of chemical microenvironments in hydrophobically modified chitosan

In this work we use the steady state and time-resolved fluorescence of free and enzyme-bound fluorophores to characterize the binding capacity of both unmodified and hydrophobically modified chitosan polymers. Additionally, fluorescence emission is used to qualitatively characterize the extent to which hydrophobic modification of the chitosan polymer affects the relative polarity of the resultant amphiphillic micelles. In total, these results are used to describe how fluorescence techniques can be used to characterize the chemical microenvironment provided by immobilization polymers such as chitosan. Commentary is also given on how this information can be correlated to enzyme activity and spatial distribution during the immobilization processes.