Porous ceramic monoliths assembled from microbeads with high specific surface area for effective biocatalysis†
Abstract
Most bio-technological applications such as enzyme immobilization for biocatalysis or biosensing require highly suitable carriers that offer high accessible surface area and good liquid flow permeability at the same time. Porous monolithic adsorbents (MAds), combining large specific surface areas with high liquid flow permeabilities, are prepared in a fast and versatile two step synthesis via the ionotropic gelation route. The obtained MAds consist of 3-dimensionally assembled porous microbeads with tailorable specific surface areas up to 50 m2 g−1 after sintering. The pores inside microbeads and MAds are highly interconnected with hierarchical pore diameters between 15 nm and 105 μm. MAds permeability constants are: k1 = 6 × 10−9 m2 and k2 = 4 × 10−4 m. The obtained MAds are excellent platforms for further bio-chemical surface modifications applying established