Synthesis and Characterization of Magnetic Nanoparticles and Its Application in Lipase Immobilization

We demonstrate herein the synthesis and modification of magnetic nanoparticles and its use in the immobilization of the lipase. Magnetic $Fe_3O_4$ nanoparticles (MNPs) were prepared by simple co-precipitation method in aqueous medium and then subsequently modified with tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) and 3-aminopropyl triethylenesilane (APTES). Silanization magnetic nanoparticles (SMNP) and amino magnetic nanomicrosphere (AMNP) were synthesized successfully. The morphology, structure, magnetic property and chemical composition of the synthetic MNP and its derivatives were characterized using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) analysis, X-ray diffraction, superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) and thermogravimetric analyses (TGA). All of these three nanoparticles exhibited good crystallization performance, apparent superparamagnetism, and the saturation magnetization of MNP, SMNP, AMNP were 47.9 emu/g, 33.0 emu/g and 19.5 emu/g, respectively. The amino content was 5.66%. The AMNP was used to immobilize lipase, and the maximum adsorption capacity of the protein was 26.3 mg/g. The maximum maintained activity (88 percent) was achieved while the amount of immobilized lipase was 23.7 mg $g^{-1}$. Immobilization of enzyme on the magnetic nanoparticles can facilitate the isolation of reaction products from reaction mixture and thus lowers the cost of enzyme application.