Abstract

Continuous Flow Catalysis in a Three-tiered Colloidosomal Microreactor

Author(s): Antonio Perez

By compartmentalising biological species within semipermeable membranes, integrative colloidosomes with hierarchical structure and advanced function could be used as biomimetic microreactors to carry out catalytic reactions. Despite recent advances in colloidosome design, further work is needed to integrate biological and inorganic components into tiered structures to address the remaining issues of biocatalysis. The Pickering emulsion method was used to create a reasonable design of three-tiered colloidosomes. The semipermeable shell of the microreactor is made up of crosslinked amphiphilic silica-polymer hybrid nanoparticles, an enzyme-incorporated catalytic sub-layer, and a partially-silicified adsorptive lumen. We show that lipase-catalyzed ester hydrolysis can be accelerated within the microcompartment of organic-inorganic hybrid colloidosomes via the confinement and enrichment effect. The catalytic colloidosomes are then packed tightly into a column for enzymatic reactions in a continuous flow manner with faster reaction rates. The three-tiered colloidosomes serve as a solid foundation for incorporating functional building blocks into a biomimetic compartmentalised microreactor with spatially regulated organisation and high-performance functions.