Designing Functionalized Mesoporous Materials for Enzyme Immobilization: Locating Enzymes by Using Advanced TEM Techniques

One of the widely accepted uses of ordered mesoporous materials is as supports of enzymes for biotechnological applications. Enzymes have been trapped, anchored, or encapsulated in organized porous networks of the mesoporous range (2-50nm). The reactivity of the surface of mesoporous materials has enabled the synthesis of various supports by using different forces for the immobilization process. To design catalysts for specific applications, we have developed functionalized mesoporous materials with tunable hydrophobicity for the immobilization of lipase. More recently, we moved to the immobilization of laccase with amino-functionalized ordered mesoporous materials. In this case, it is required to use pore expanders along with optimized functionalization techniques. Advanced TEM techniques have been applied to locate not only the functional groups but also the macromolecules inside the silica matrix.