Surface modification of halloysite nanotubes with dopamine for enzyme immobilization

Halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) have been proposed as a potential support to immobilize enzymes. Improving enzyme loading on HNTs is critical to their practical applications. Herein, we reported a simple method on the preparation of high-enzyme-loading support by modification with dopamine on the surface of HNTs. The modified HNTs were characterized by transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analyses. The results showed that dopamine could self-polymerize to adhere to the surface of HNTs and form a thin active coating. While the prepared hybrid nanotubes were used to immobilize enzyme of laccase, they exhibited high loading ability of 168.8 mg/g support, which was greatly higher than that on the pristine HNTs (11.6 mg/g support). The immobilized laccase could retain more than 90% initial activity after 30 days of storage and the free laccase only 32%. The immobilized laccase could also maintain more than 90% initial activity after five repeated uses. In addition, the immobilized laccase exhibited a rapid degradation rate and high degradation efficiency for removal of phenol compounds. These advantages indicated that the new hybrid material can be used as a low-cost and effective support to immobilize enzymes.