Structure and properties of lipase activated by cellulose-silica polyethersulfone membrane for production of pentyl valerate

Herein, this study extracted nanocrystalline cellulose (NC) and silica (SiO₂) from raw oil palm leaves (OPL), and employed as nanofillers in polyethersulfone (PES) to produce NC-SiO₂-PES as support to immobilize Candida rugosa lipase (CRL) (NC-SiO₂-PES/CRL). XRD, TGA-DTG and FTIR-ATR data affirmed that NC and SiO₂ were isolated from OPL with corresponding crystallinity indices of 68 % and 70 %. A 0.02 cm membrane size with 5% (w/v) of NC-SiO₂ without PVP K30 was optimal for membrane fabrication. CRL immobilized on the Glut-AP-NC-SiO₂-PES membrane gave a higher conversion of pentyl valerate (PeVa) (91.3 %, p < 0.05) compared to Glut-NC-SiO₂-PES (73.9 %) (p < 0.05). Characterization of the NC-SiO₂-PES/CRL biocatalyst verified the presence of CRL. Hence, raw OPL is a proven good source of NC and SiO₂, as reinforcement nanofillers in PES. The overall findings envisage the promising use of NC-SiO₂-PES/CRL to catalyze an expedient and high yield of PeVa, alongside the suitability of NC-SiO₂-PES for activating other enzymes.