Shielding of Enzymes on the Surface of Graphene-Based Composite Cellular Foams Through Bioinspired Mineralization

Immobilization of enzyme on the surface of graphene-based composite cellular foams (GCCFs) is commonly prone to acquire stable and ultrahigh loading of enzymes and fast transport of substrates during the catalytic process. In this chapter, we reported a method of preparing GCCFs through combination of redox assembly and biomimetic mineralization with in situ enzyme immobilization . Briefly, GCCFs were first prepared through redox assembly of graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets enabled by polyethyleneimine (PEI). The cationic PEI in the resultant reduced GO/PEI (rGO/PEI) cellular foams acted as the mineralization-inducing agent could catalyze the condensation of silicate to form silica (biomimetic silicification) on the reduced graphene oxide (rGO) surface, where enzyme (with penicillin G acylase as model enzyme) is in situ entrapped and shielded within the silica network. Enzymes could be stably resided on the surface of GCCFs without any leaching against a broad range of pH values (3.5–10.0). GCCFs show a three-dimensional (3D) porous structure, which facilitates the fast transfer of substrate and, thereby, leads to desirable catalytic activity . Combined with the monolithic feature, GCCFs exhibit ease of recyclability and superior thermal/recycling stabilities during the catalytic synthesis of 6-aminopenicillanic acid (6-APA, an important pharmaceutical intermediate) compared to free enzyme and enzyme adsorbed on rGO/PEI cellular foams.