Encapsulation of an enzyme-immobilized smart polymer membrane in a metal–organic framework for enhancement of catalytic performance

Abstract

Encapsulation of enzymes within porous materials has shown great promise for protecting enzymes from denaturation, increasing their tolerance to harsh environments and promoting their industrialization. However, controlling the conformational freedom of the encapsulated enzymes to enhance their catalytic performance remains a great challenge. To address this issue, herein, following immobilization of GOx and HRP on a thermo-responsive porous poly(styrene-maleic-anhydride-N-isopropylacrylamide) (PSMN) membrane, a GOx–HRP@PSMN@HZIF-8 composite was fabricated by encapsulating GOx–HRP@PSMN in hollow ZIF-8 (HZIF-8) with liposome (L) as the sacrificial template. The improved conformational freedom for enzymes arising from the hollow cavity formed in ZIF-8 through the removal of L enhanced the mass transfer and dramatically promoted the catalytic activity of the composite. Interestingly, at high temperature, the coiled PN moiety in PSMN provided the confinement effect for GOx–HRP, which also significantly boosted the catalytic performance of the composites. Compared to the maximum catalytic reaction rates (V_max) of GOx–HRP@PSMN@LZIF-8, the free enzyme and GOx–HRP@ZIF-8, the V_max of the GOx–HRP@PSMN@HZIF-8 composite exhibited an impressive 17.8-fold, 10.8-fold and 6.0-fold enhancement at 37 °C, respectively. The proposed composites successfully demonstrated their potential as catalytic platforms for the colorimetric detection of glucose in a cascade reaction. This study paves a new way for overcoming the current limitations of immobilizing enzymes in porous materials and the use of smart polymers for the potential fabrication of enzyme@polymer@MOF composites with tunable conformational freedom and confinement effect.