Mechanistic and Structural Features of Protein Adsorption onto Mesoporous Silicates

Oxidation of ABTS by silicate-immobilized cytochrome c in nonaqueous solutions

Cytochrome c can be readily adsorbed onto mesoporous silicates at high loadings of up to 10 mmol g(-)(1) of silicate. The adsorbed protein retains its peroxidative activity, with no diffusional limitations being observed. The protein can be adsorbed onto the external surface of the silicate or, provided that the pore diameter is sufficiently large, into the channels. In aqueous buffer, the catalytic activity of the adsorbed protein (for the oxidation of ABTS) decreased with increasing temperature, with the decrease being less marked for cytochrome c held within the silicate channels. Similar results were obtained in 95% methanol. Analysis of kinetic data showed that significant increases in k(cat)/K(M) occurred in methanol, ethanol, and formamide, with slight decreases occurring in 1-methoxy-2-propanol. The observed increases were primarily a result of substantial increases in k(cat), while the results in 1-methoxy-2-propanol can be ascribed to increases in K(M). Resonance Raman spectroscopy indicated that the structure of the heme environment of the adsorbed protein was essentially unchanged, in aqueous buffer and in the nonaqueous solvents, methanol, 1-methoxy-2-propanol, and ethanol. In addition, Raman spectra of the lyophilized protein indicated that there were no apparent changes in the heme structure.

Sorption and diffusion of phenols onto well-defined ordered nanoporous monolithic silicas

The sorption of phenol, and o-, m-, and p-aminophenol (o-, m-, and p-AP) onto highly ordered mesoporous silicas (HOM) with cubic Im3m (HOM-1), hexagonal H(I) (HOM-2), 3-D hexagonal p6(3)/mmc (HOM-3), cubic Ia3d (HOM-5), lamellar L( infinity ) (HOM-6), and solid phase S (HOM-8) materials has been investigated kinetically. Nanostructured silica molecular sieves have been prepared at 25 and 60 degrees C with lyotropic liquid-crystalline phases of the nonionic surfactant (Brij 76) that was used as a structure-directing agent. Such nanostructured silicas have been studied by 29Si nuclear magnetic resonance (29Si NMR), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) method for nitrogen adsorption and surface area measurements, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques after synthesis and sorption. It was found that all materials exhibit well-defined long-range porous architectures without significant loss of the ordered texture during phenol sorption. The kinetics of phenol sorption has been studied spectrophotometrically at different temperatures (25-40 degrees C; +/-0.1 range). The sorption rate is zero order in all phenols sorbed, and increases directly in the pattern P >m-AP > o-AP > p-AP, which reflects the mobility of the phenol compounds on the particle pores. The isothermal sorption and the kinetic parameters were discussed and it was established that a diffusion-controlled process characterizes phenol sorption. Furthermore, the mechanism of phenol sorption was deduced to be predominantly particle diffusion. The diffusion coefficients were determined using Fick's equation. The trend of diffusion of all phenols onto nanoporous silica was HOM-8 > HOM-2 > HOM-6 > HOM-5 > HOM-1 > HOM-3, reflecting the effect of the uniform pore size distribution and the internal surface area of the nanostructured silicas on the diffusion process.