Adsorption isotherms, kinetics and thermodynamic studies towards understanding the interaction between cross-linked alginate-guar gum matrix and chymotrypsin

The adsorption kinetics of chymotrypsin, a pancreatic serine protease, onto an alginate-gum guar matrix cross-linked with epichlorohydrin has been performed using a batch-adsorption technique. The effect of various experimental parameters such as pH, salt presence, contact time and temperature were investigated. The pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order kinetic models were used to describe the kinetic data which shows that the adsorption of the enzyme followed the pseudo-second-order rate expression. The Langmuir, Freundlich and Hill adsorption isotherm models were applied to describe the equilibrium isotherms, and the isotherm constants were determined. It was found that Hill model was more suitable for our data because the isotherm data showed a sigmoidal behavior with the free enzyme concentration increasing in equilibrium. At 8 °C and at pH 5.0, 1 g hydrate matrix adsorbed about 7 mg of chymotrypsin. In the desorption process 80% of the biological activity of chymotrypsin was recovered under the condition of 50 mM phosphate buffer, pH 7.00-500 mM NaCl. When successive cycles of adsorption/washing/desorption were performed, it was observed that the matrix remained functional until the fourth cycle of repeated batch enzyme adsorption. These results are important in terms of diminishing of cost and waste generation.