"Bioactive Polymeric Membrane at Liquid-Liquid interface for Specialty Chemicals Synthesis"

Ravi Narayanan

Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States

Thursday, September 11th at 3:00 p.m.
South Engineering 221, NDSU

 

Many valuable industrial biotransformations like synthesis of drug precursors involve both hydrophobic and hydrophilic reactants. Interface-binding enzymes are desirable for biphasic reactions in that they offer simultaneous access to reactants dissolved in both phases across the interface. The interface-binding enzymes were developed by conjugation of water-soluble enzymes with functionalized polymer that resulted in a self-assembled enzymatic membrane at aqueous-organic interface. However, a major hurdle in this system was the complex diffusion-reaction problem with two-dimensional mobility of the enzyme at the interface. The boundary layer at the interface was contributing towards the mass transfer limitation for the reactants and was slowing down the entire reaction. A novel nanostirring mechanism was developed to disrupt the boundary layer and overcome the mass transfer limitation. Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles were adsorbed to the polymer-enzyme conjugate and assembled at the interface to realize a magnetic membrane. An alternating electromagnetic field was used for nanoscale vibration of the magnetic membrane about the interface. This nanostirring increased the mass transfer at the interface, enabling over 500% improvement in the observed reaction rate. The novel self-assembling enzymes at liquid-liquid interfaces will open new avenues for interfacial science of proteins, drug delivery, protein circuitry, and nanobioelectronics and promote advancement in bioprocessing technologies. The use of multiple enzymes at interface will eventually lead to fabrication of artificial cell that will be specialized for a particular reaction system.

All are welcome!

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