The use of polyaniline nanofibre as a support for lipase mediated reaction

Highly stable and recoverable polianiline nanofibres are developed for enzyme immobilisation and recovery. Candida rugosa lipase (LP) was immobilised onto a polyaniline nanofibre with cross-linking for enzyme aggregation. The optimal LP loading was 5 mg LP/1 mg polyaniline. The stability of the immobilised LP was measured and shown to be high under vigorous shaking at room temperature. This polyaniline nanofibre LP was easily separable with low-speed centrifugation and repeatedly usable. LP immobilised on polyaniline nanofibre demonstrated high stereoselectivity in the kinetic resolution of racemic (R,S)-ibuprofen and improved the long-term stability as compared to that by the free enzyme, allowing the supported enzyme to be repeatedly used for a series of chiral resolution reactions. The conversion from racemic ibuprofen to a chirally selective compound, a prophilic ester of ibuprofen, was approximately 30% with free LP and approximately 10% with immobilised LP. The enantiomeric excess using immobilised LP after 96 h reaction was 0.884.