Covalent immobilization of glucose oxidase onto new modified acrylonitrile copolymer/silica gel hybrid supports.

New polymer/silica gel hybrid supports were prepared by coating high surface area of silica gel with modified acrylonitrile copolymer. The concentrations of the modifying agent (NaOH) and the modified polymer were varied. GOD was covalently immobilized on these hybrid supports and the relative activity and the amount of bound protein were determined. The highest relative activity and sufficient amount of bound protein of the immobilized GOD were achieved in 10% NaOH and 2% solution of modified acrylonitrile copolymer. The influence of glutaraldehyde concentration and the storage time on enzyme efficiency were examined. Glutaraldehyde concentration of 0.5% is optimal for the immobilized GOD. It was shown that the covalently bound enzyme (using 0.5% glutaraldehyde) had higher relative activity than the activity of the adsorbed enzyme. Covalently immobilized GOD with 0.5% glutaraldehyde was more stable for four months in comparison with the one immobilized on pure silica gel, hybrid support with 10% glutaraldehyde and the free enzyme. The effect of the pore size on the enzyme efficiency was studied on four types of silica gel with different pore size. Silica with large pores (CPC-Silica carrier, 375 A) presented higher relative activity than those with smaller pore size (Silica gel with 4, 40 and 100 A). The amount of bound protein was also reduced with decreasing the pore size. The effect of particle size was studied and it was found out that the smaller the particle size was, the greater the activity and the amount of immobilized enzyme were. The obtained results proved that these new polymer/silica gel hybrid supports were suitable for GOD immobilization.