Controlled and facile synthesis of a self-assembled enzyme-inorganic catalyst based on flexible metal-coated fiber for an excellent removal of synthetic pollutants from aqueous environment

The development of green sustainable chemistry opens the door to the application of biocatalytic in numerous fields for the research in industry and academia. As a common biological catalyst, enzyme catalysis is ideally suited and widely applicable for various desired reaction. In this work, a hierarchical structure laccase-Cu-3(PO4)(2)center dot 3H(2)O nanoflower-coated silica fiber (La-CNSF) was successfully fabricated with hundreds of Cu-3(PO4)(2) nanosheets formed on the processed silica fibers as the petal and laccase as the enzyme catalyst. It included two processes: first, Cu nanoparticles were directly grown on silica fiber cloth as a precursor and three-dimensional (3D) Cu-3(PO4)(2)center dot 3H(2)O nanoflower was self-assembled on Cu-coated fibers by post-processing. Then, La-CNSF was successfully immobilized via a simple one-step immersion reaction in a laccasephosphate buffer solution (PBS) solution. The product was characterized by FTIR, XRD, SEM and UV-visible spectroscopy. Congo red was realized using La-CNSF as a biocatalyst. Compared with pure laccase, La-CNSF sample exhibits an enhanced catalytic activity. The flower-like structure assembled on the fiber provided La-CNSF high storage stability and reusability in contrast with free laccase. The superior catalytic performance of La-CNSF supports a potential strategy for purification of water pollutants, and it favors the realization of the engineering of large scale applications of enzyme catalysis.