Lipase is an industrial enzyme, the catalytic efficiency of which is restricted by various environmental factors. To improve this efficiency, immobilization technology has been utilized in the past to improve the stability of lipase in harsh conditions. Immobilization technology can be divided into physical methods and chemical methods. Some unsolved problems remain in current immobilization technology. The interaction between enzyme and immobilization support is weak and reversible during physical adsorption, resulting in poor stability of the immobilized enzyme and the contamination of substrate solution by leached enzymes. In chemical methods, enzyme-active sites might be inactivated due to the chemical reactions between enzyme molecules and support, resulting in a decrease in the enzymes’ catalytic activity (Liu et al., 2018a). The objective of the current study was to construct a nanostructured lipase via Mg-amino-clay as a carrier and improve the catalytic activity and stability of lipase by immobilization. Lipase produced by Aspergillus oryzae was immobilized on aminopropyl functionalized magnesium phyllosilicate (a 2:1 trioctahedral talc-like silicate Mg-amino-clay) via a 1-(3-Dimethylaminopropyl)-3-ethyl-carbodiimide hydrochloride (EDC) coupling agent. The physical and chemical properties of the Mg-amino-clay and Mg-amino-clay-based nanostructured biocatalyst (Mg-clay-lipase) were characterized by X-ray diffraction, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. Optimal immobilization conditions were determined by taking into account the following variables: amount of initial lipase, EDC concentration, and reaction time. The results revealed that the optimum temperature, pH, and thermal stability of Mg-clay-lipase were greater than equivalent values for free lipase under optimal conditions (described below – Process for Immobilization of Lipase on Mg-amino-clay). The Michaelis-Menten constant (Km) values were 5.25 mM and 7.42 mM while the maximum reaction rates (vmax) were 30.58 mM/(L·min) and 55.87 mM/(L·min) for free lipase and Mg-clay-lipase, respectively. The present study provided a new nanostructured biocatalyst and demonstrated that the enzyme activity and stability of Mg-clay-lipase were superior to those of free lipase due to the mechanism of 'interface activation'.
