Polyaniline nanofiber coated monolith reactor for enzymatic bioconversion

The monolith reactor has many advantages over other reactors including good mass transfer, low-pressure drop and high enzyme stability. In this study, an enzyme-coated monolith with high enzyme stability and activity was developed. The monolith surface was coated with polyaniline nanofibers containing glucose oxidase immobilized on its surface. The developed enzyme-coated monolith was used for the bioconversion of glucose to glucolactone at different residence times. The conversion ratio increased up to 83% at increasing residence time. In addition, the polyaniline-coated monolith showed excellent enzyme activity and long-term stability. The stability of the enzyme-coated monolith containing the polyaniline nanofibers showed almost 100% residual activities after 8 days operation, while rapid enzyme deactivation and detachment was observed when the enzymes were immobilized without the polyaniline nanofibers.