Beaded reactive polymers. 3. Effect of triacrylates as crosslinkers on the physical properties of glycidyl methacrylate copolymers and immobilization of penicillin G acylase.

Various glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) copolymers were synthesized by suspension polymerization, using pentaerythritol triacrylate (PETA), trimethylolpropane triacrylate (TMPTA), and trimethylolpropane trimethacrylate (TRIM) as crosslinking comonomers. These copolymers were evaluated for the immobilization of penicillin G acylase. Broad pore-size distribution that was observed was in the range 5-300 nm. Both surface area and pore volume increased with increase in the mole fraction of crosslinking comonomer (increasing crosslink density). The pore volume of the copolymers was more than doubled by including lauryl alcohol as porogen. Binding of penicillin G acylase (PGA) was quantitative on highly crosslinked copolymers. The expression of bound PGA was better on the relatively more hydrophilic GMA-TMPTA and GMA-PETA copolymer supports compared to the GMA-TRIM copolymers. Among the different copolymers studied, GMA-TMPTA copolymer 7411 exhibited highest activity of immobilized penicillin G acylase (167.4 IU/g) with 35.1% expression.