Porous zirconia: a new support material for enzyme immobilization

Four different proteases (trypsin, chymotrypsin, papain and pepsin) were covalently attached to the surface of a new type of porous zirconia, as well as a conventional porous silica, activated with 3-isothiocyanatopropyltriethoxy silane (NCS-silane). The immobilization efficiency onto the porous zirconia material was evaluated in terms of the amount of enzyme attached to the particles and from the biological activity remaining after the immobilization step. The results were compared with the corresponding experiments with a porous silica of similar surface area/g support material. In addition, the storage stability of the modified zirconia and silica biocatalysts were evaluated. These results indicated that specific immobilized enzyme biocatalysts can be achieved with this new zirconia support material which exhibits different properties to those observed with the more conventional silica-based materials. Moreover, the results with the enzyme-zirconia biocatalysts also indicate different characteristics when compared with data for the same enzymes immobilized under similar buffer conditions to organic support materials as previously described by various other investigators. The advantages of zirconia-based immobilized enzyme biocatalysts in terms of their density and chemical robustness are also described relative to other alternative support materials currently in use.