Application prospects and opportunities of inorganic nanomaterials for enzyme immobilization in the food-processing industry

Enzymes seem to be ideal biocatalysts in various bioprocessing fields due to their eco-friendliness and nonhazardous merits. Generally, enzymological characteristics such as catalytic activity, selectivity, specificity, and stability often become weak in extreme processing conditions. Enzymes immobilized onto support materials through the physical, chemical, and physicochemical mechanisms can overcome these limitations. Compared with macroscopic supports, inorganic nanomaterials show great superiority in enzyme immobilization due to their specific physicochemical properties, such as large surface area, pore diameter, mechanical resistance, and so on. Herein, this paper mainly talks about recent advances in enzyme immobilization employing representative nanomaterials, including silica-based nanomaterial, carbon-based nanomaterial, metal-based nanomaterial, and magnetic nanomaterial. The prospective and opportunities of these materials applied in the food-processing industry are also discussed to promote immobilization technological innovation.