[Enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose in reverse micelles]

Several types of surfactants were adopted to construct reverse micelles, in order to investigate the characteristics of cellulose hydrolysis, we used the carboxymethyl cellulose as substrate. The electrical conductivity was measured to determine the maximum water solubilization W0( W0 = [H2O]/[SA] ) of CTAB, SDS, Tween-80 and rhamnolipid reverse micellar systems were 15.2, 20.1, 2.3 and 40.3. In this condition we studied the effects of surfactants concentrations and cellulose dosage on the enzymatic hydrolysis of reverse micelle,and compared with aqueous systems. It was shown by the results that when the cellulose dosage was 0.15 FPU/g substrate, the maximum yield of reducing sugar in reverse micelles was obtained at 1 cmc of CTAB, SDS, Tween-80 and rhamnolipid, in which the rhamnolipid yield was the highest of 198.03 mg substrate. When the concentrations of CTAB, SDS, Tween-80 and rhamnolipid were 1 cmc, the productions of reverse micelles systems were higher than that of aqueous systems of 34.36%, 21.24%, 11.44% and 34.62%. In the optimum conditions of the surfactant concentration, taking the saving cost and sugar yield into consideration, the cellulose dosage of 5 FPU substrate was the most suitable. The reducing sugar's yield of biosurfactant rhamnolipid reverse micellar system was higher than those of three chemical surfactant systems, it was shown that the adoption of biosurfactant has technologically promising prospect in constructing reverse micelles and enhancing the stability of reverse micelles.