Lipase-interfacial catalytic systems based on hybrid membranes constructed via electrospinning and gelation

Based on the core appeal of increasing the catalytic interface area, the innovation of structural interface design in the field of lipase catalysis is increasingly demanding. Inspired by wetting and infiltration of fabric, two radically new catalytic systems were developed by electrospinning and gelation. The water swelling (containing lipase) and oil infiltration (containing substrate) of hydrogel fiber-hydrophobic fiber hybrid membranes (hg-HMs) or hydrogel-hydrophobic block fiber hybrid membranes (hg-BHMs) created efficient water-oil interfaces for lipases. The specific activity of lipases inside hg-HMs and hg-BHMs reached 2.56-fold and 2.12-fold separately that in the macroscopic “oil-up/water-down” system, and 1.93-fold and 2.01-fold that in the emulsion catalytic system. The lipases in hg-HMs and hg-BHMs retained high efficiency along time (3.97-fold and 3.54-fold after 3 h of catalysis) with additionally excellent advantages in wide range of temperature and pH, and reusability. Excitingly, with increased pieces of membranes, the assembled hybrid membrane reactors (HMRs) showed a significant increase in catalytic efficiency but basically unchanged specific activity in finite space, which extremely magnified advantage over the control group. This study was a meaningful exploration of micro interfacial lipase catalytic system, which is helpful for further application of liquid-liquid interfacial catalysis in food industry.