Laccase – methacrylyol functionalized magnetic particles: Highly immobilized, reusable, and efficacious for methyl red decolourization

Magnetically retrievable formulations of laccase potentially promising for biomedical and environmental applications were constructed by immobilization of the enzyme on the surface of magnetic nanoparticles functionalized by siloxane layers with active amino and methacrylyol moieties. The functional magnetic particles were prepared using a hydrolytic polycondensation reaction of tetraethoxysilane with 3-methacryloxypropyltrimethoxysilane (MPS). The results indicated that the amounts of laccase loading on the methacrylyol functional magnetic particles were approximately 150   mg/g under the optimum conditions. The stability of the immobilized laccase was highly enhanced against thermal treatments and provided better long-term storage. Compared to free laccase, the immobilized laccase exhibited significantly higher decolourisation efficiency in the decolorization of a representative dye, methyl red, which resulted from the magnetic particles adsorption and enzymatic catalysis. These results show its great potential for industrial applications.