Immobilization of cellulase on polyamidoamine dendrimer-grafted silica

Polyamidoamine dendrimer (PAMAM) is one of a number of dendritic polymers with precise molecular structure, highly geometric symmetry, and a large number of terminal groups, and is suitable to carry biomolecules due to its affinity and biocompatibility. In this study, PAMAM was grafted onto the surface of silica by microwave irradiation. A novel media was developed through immobilizing cellulase onto the prepared PAMAM-grafted silica by adsorption and crosslinking methods and applied in hydrolysis of carboxymethyl cellulose. The results demonstrate that the enzyme binding capacity and enzymolysis efficiency increased with generations of PAMAM. The properties of the immobilized cellulase-PAMAM-grafted silica were investigated, which possessed high enzymatic activity and exhibited better stability with respect to pH, temperature compared with free enzyme. The optimal immobilization conditions for adsorption and crosslinking method were respectively obtained at 5 and 4 mg ml−1 cellulase for 2 h of immobilization. A high enzymolysis efficiency was achieved by employing pH 4.8 and 5.8 substrate solution at 60 °C for adsorbed and crosslinked cellulase, respectively. After repeated three run cycles, the retained activities were found to be 75% and 82%. The results indicate that the PAMAM has a good performance as a carrier, and can be potentially adapted to support other biomacromolecules.

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► A new type of immobilized cellulase was developed based on PAMAM-grafted silica.
► The enzyme binding capacity increased with rising PAMAM generations.
► The properties of adsorption and crosslinking immobilization methods were compared.
► The prepared media possessed high enzymatic activity and exhibited better stability.
► The protocol can be potentially adapted to support other biomacromolecules.