Spatially confined lignin nanospheres for biocatalytic ester synthesis in aqueous media

• Published in: Nature Communications
• Main Authors: Sipponen, Mika Henrikki, Farooq, Muhammad, Koivisto, Jari, Pellis, Alessandro, Seitsonen, Jani, Österberg, Monika
• Other Authors: Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems, Department of Chemistry and Materials Science, University of York, Department of Applied Physics, Aalto-yliopisto, Aalto University
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/handle/123456789/32614; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-04715-6

Dehydration reactions proceed readily in water-filled biological cells. Development of biocatalysts that mimic such compartmentalized reactions has been cumbersome due to the lack of low-cost nanomaterials and associated technologies. Here we show that cationic lignin nanospheres function as activating anchors for hydrolases, and enable aqueous ester synthesis by forming spatially confined biocatalysts upon self-assembly and drying-driven aggregation in calcium alginate hydrogel. Spatially confined microbial cutinase and lipase retain 97% and 70% of their respective synthetic activities when the volume ratio of water to hexane increases from 1:1 to 9:1 in the reaction medium. The activity retention of industrially most frequently used acrylic resin-immobilized Candida antarctica lipase B is only 51% under similar test conditions. Overall, our findings enable fabrication of robust renewable biocatalysts for aqueous ester synthesis, and provide insight into the compartmentalization of diverse heterogeneous catalysts. Peer reviewed