Enhanced Activity of Alcohol Dehydrogenase in Porous Silica Nanosheets with Wide Size Distributed Mesopores

Optimized pore size is essential for maximizing the encapsulation efficiency of molecules in solid supports. In this work, we prepared porous silica nanosheets with mesopore in the size range from several to dozens of nanometers, which may provide suitable spaces for loading of various molecules. Without any surface modification, the porous silica nanosheets show excellent immobilization capability (27 wt%) of enzymes with large molecular sizes (>10 nm). An enhanced activity of alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) in the porous silica nanosheets was also achieved in compared with free ADH or ADH in mesoporous silica nanoparticles with average pore size of 12 nm. In addition, this ADH-silica nanosheets system showed effective catalytic performance not only with pure ethanol, but also alcohol drinks with complicated gradients or after relative harsh treatments. The efficient supporting of this inorganic porous structure to enzymes might also lead to its potentials for other biocatalysis, biosensing and enzymatic determination of alcohols etc.