Nylon 6 film and nanofiber carriers: Preparation and laccase immobilization performance

• Production of cheap nylon 6 film and nanofiber carriers.
• Physical and chemical characterization of the matrices.
• Laccase immobilization onto nylon carriers.
• New biocatalytic material for industrial applications.

Enzyme immobilization has attracted continuous attention in the field of fine chemistry, biomedicine and biosensor. Polyamides are promising materials to promote immobilization: thus, nylon 6 film and nanofiber carriers (prepared by electrospinning method) have been investigated. The enzyme (i.e. laccase from Trametes versicolor) was covalently immobilized onto spacer-arm attached carriers after acidic hydrolysis. The amount of immobilized enzyme on the nylon film and nanofibers was 59.4% and 71.0% respectively. The maximum activity (Vmax) and Michaelis–Menten constant (Km) of laccase immobilized on functionalized carriers were determined. The operational and thermal stabilities of the immobilized laccase were improved compared to free counterpart. The use of nylon carriers for enzyme immobilization has shown interesting properties to be used as biocatalytic material in industrial applications. Furthermore, nylon carriers are cheap and could be produced at large scale.

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