Immobilization of lipase on methyl-modified silica aerogels by physical adsorption

In this work, methyl-modified silica aerogels, a new kind of macro-porous material with high porosity, were used as carriers to immobilize lipase by adsorption. SEM, TEM, nitrogen adsorption device, and thermogravimetric analysis were used to characterize the properties of modified aerogels. The surface area was 395.6 m2/g, and the average pore diameter was 68.72 nm. The contact angle of aerogel particles increased from 20.9° to 99.2° after methyl modification. Reaction characteristics of the material after enzyme loading were also discussed. The results showed that adsorption capacity could reach 67.42 mg/g; and the maximal enzyme activity was 19.87 μmol min−1 mg−1 (protein), and activity retention could reach 56.44%. It is worth mentioning that the amount of modified aerogels added had significant effects on the diameter of droplets and the mass transfer behavior of substrates in the reaction emulsion. Online microscope was used to visualize the droplets in the emulsion, where the aerogel particles were observed locating at the interface of oil and water. The average diameter of droplets reached the minimum when 0.06 g of modified aerogels was added into the reaction emulsion which contained 10 ml of oil and 10 ml of phosphate buffer solution. The phenomenon was resulted from the wettability of methyl-modified silica aerogels.