Immobilization of Proteins in Poly-Styrene-Divinylbenzene Matrices: Functional Properties and Applications

Supports based on poly-styrene-divinylbenzene (PSD) are commercially available since a long time ago. However, they are not commonly used as enzyme immobilization matrices. The main reason for this lies in the negative effect of the very hydrophobic surface on enzyme stability that produces the instantaneous enzyme inactivation in many instances. However, they have recently regained some impact in enzyme immobilization. They are easy to modify, and have been prepared with different modifiers. We will pay special attention to the coating of these supports with ionic liquids, which permits to have the ionic liquid phase anchored to the solid and modulate the enzyme properties without risk of losing these expensive and potentially toxic compounds. Thus, this review will present the covalent or physical immobilization of enzymes on PSD supports, submitted to different modifications. Moreover, lipases immobilized via interfacial activation on some naked PSD supports have shown some unexpected improvement in their catalytic properties, with uses in reactions like hydrolysis, esterification or transesterification.