Self-assembled enzyme-inorganic hybrid nanoflowers and their application to enzyme purification.

We report a novel method to synthesize organic-inorganic nanoflowers for crude soybean peroxidase (SBP) purification. A hierarchical flower-like spherical structure with hundreds of nanopetals was self-assembled by using crude SBP as the organic component and Cu3(PO4)2·3H2O as the inorganic component. The structure of the hybrid nanoflowers was confirmed by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and the enzymatic activity of SBP embedded in the hybrid nanoflowers was evaluated using guaiacol as substrate. Compared with free crude SBP in solution, SBP embedded in hybrid nanoflowers exhibited enhanced enzymatic activity (∼446%). The hybrid nanoflowers also exhibited excellent reusability and reproducibility during cycle analysis. These results demonstrate that synthesis of hybrid nanoflowers is an effective enzyme purification strategy.