Production of New Functionalized Polymer Nanoparticles and Use for Manufacture of Novel Nanobiocatalysts

Abstract

New nanoparticles are synthesized through emulsion polymerization, using distinct comonomers (styrene, divinylbenzene, glycidyl methacrylate and pentafluorostyrene). Then, for the first time, two strategies are adopted to functionalize such nanoparticles using benzylamine and thiophenol: (i) after the manufacture of the nanoparticles; and (ii) in situ during the polymerization reaction. Afterwards, the functionalized nanoparticles are used as nanosupports for immobilization of lipase B from Candida antarctica and the performance of the novel nanobiocatalysts are evaluated. It is shown that the nanoparticles exhibit different properties (specific areas ranging from 34 m2 g−1 to 324 m2 g−1; and contact angles ranging from 29° to 126°), indicating that both procedures can be used to adjust the properties of the polymer supports. Moreover, the nanobiocatalysts are applied successfully in hydrolysis and esterification reactions, exhibiting higher activities than the non‐functionalized biocatalysts. It is also observed that more hydrophilic supports result in more active biocatalysts in hydrolysis (27 ± 1 U g−1) and intermediate hydrophobic matrices conduct to more active biocatalysts in esterification reactions (1564 ± 50 U g−1). It is shown that highly hydrophobic surfaces may cause a significant decrease in the activity of such biocatalysts, probably due to distortions on the enzyme active center and to more intense chemical partitioning effects.

Polymeric nanoparticles as therapeutic agents against coronavirus disease

“…The functionalization of the nanoparticles can be conducted after the preparation of the nanocarriers or through the insertion of the desired chemical functions during polymerization and preparation of the polymer nanoparticles (in situ functionalization) (Fig. 3 B) (Pinto et al 2020 ).…”

Polymerization strategies to produce new polymer biocatalysts for the biodiesel industry

“…Based on the obtained results, it is not trivial to select the best biocatalyst, but it seems that the textural properties affected more significantly the biocatalysts' performance than the particles' functionality; polystyrene and poly(methyl methacrylate) matrices resulted in high active biocatalysts. However, as highlighted by Pinto et al (2014) 21 and Pinto et al (2020B), 23 the catalytic performance of the biocatalysts depends not only on the chemical properties of the polymer matrices, but also on the enzymatic medium composition. Thus, the influence of these variables on the biocatalysts' activities have been deeply evaluated.…”

“…Pinto et al (2020A; 2020B) 22,23 evaluated the influence of the hydrophobicity level of nonporous polymer supports on biocatalyst performance. It was observed for immobilized CAL-B biocatalysts that there is an optimum range of hydrophobicity level of the supports to obtain active biocatalysts, above which the biocatalysts activity significantly decreases.…”

Influence of Textural Properties of Divinylbenzene Copolymers on the Immobilization of Lipase B from Candida antarctica

“…In particular, mass transfer constraints can be related to liquid-liquid diffusion and surface diffusion (or external diffusional restriction, EDR) limitations and intraparticle diffusion (or internal diffusional restriction, IDR), when the enzyme immobilization is carried out on gels and porous particles 22 . These mass transfer constraints are often related to morphological characteristics of the supports, such as the specific surface area, pore volume, average pore size and pore size distribution, along with other factors related to the swelling properties of the support in the reaction medium and polydispersity of the particles [23][24][25][26] . For these reasons, the performance of heterogeneous biocatalysts depends on the properties of the enzymes, characteristics of the reaction medium, reaction conditions, and physical-chemical characteristics of the supports.…”

“…The manufacture of heterogeneous biocatalysts based on immobilized supports has attracted strong interest in both the academic and industrial communities. Many studies have explored the correlations between the textural properties of the analyzed supports and the immobilization parameters, using the important commercial lipase B from Candida antarctica, CALB 4,[22][23][24][25][26] .…”