Robust glucose oxidase with a Fe3O4@C-silica nanohybrid structure

Abstract

Biomolecules, especially enzymes, usually have poor thermal and operational stability as well as limited reuse cycles, which greatly limit their industrial practices. Inspired by the biomineralization strategy evolved by natural organisms, we suggest nanohybrid enzyme formulation by in situ encapsulating enzyme loaded functional Fe₃O₄@C nanoparticles with silica. By using glucose oxidase (GOD) as an example, we demonstrate that the obtained enzyme-material hybrids are featured by their significantly enhanced operational and thermal stabilities, which exhibit a relatively steady catalytic ability in a board range of 25 °C to 65 °C. Even after 4 h of incubation at 55 °C, the GOD-material composites still retain 77% of their initial activity while the native ones only retain 30%. Besides, the nanohybrids show excellent reusability because the magnetic character of the integrated Fe₃O₄ particles facilitates the enzyme separation and recycle. This attempt provides a valuable approach for biological improvement by using functional materials.