Bamboo-Inspired bionic microfluidic Reactor: Construction and application for industrial Biocatalysis

Microfluidic biocatalytic reactors have drawn considerable interest in recent years, but their high production costs hinder scalability for industrial use. It is urgent to develop a low-cost and green fluid reactor. Here, inspired by the structure of natural bamboo, a cellulose-based bionic microfluidic biocatalytic reactor with a porous structure is developed and constructed for the continuous fluid catalytic conversion of phytochemicals. The delignified bamboo serves as a highly biocompatible platform that can be readily functionalized and coupled with enzymes at high loading capacity. An efficient enzyme immobilization system was established by optimizing the delignification process and the Schiff base coupling reaction. The optimized reactor system achieved an immobilization yield of 90.20%, retained 95.35% relative enzyme activity under optimal conditions, and exhibited a protein loading capacity of approximately 1.97 U·mg^-1 on delignified bamboo. In a β-glucosidase-functionalized flow reactor, substrate biotransformation rate is 87.97% at pH 5 and temperature 50 ℃. During the biotransformation of Polygonum cuspidatum extract, a 93.87% biotransformation rate and a 2.4-fold increase in resveratrol concentration were achieved within 1 h. The bamboo-based fiber reactor is simple to prepare and readily scalable in operation, offering potential for convenient continuous industrial use and commercial applications.