A novel approach to efficient degradation of pesticide intermediate 2,4,5-trichlorophenol by co-immobilized laccase-acetosyringone biocatalyst

In this work, the industrial bacterial cellulose was functionalized by grafting glycidyl methacrylate and dopamine after regeneration with mixed ionic liquids of [AMIM]Cl and [Emim][OAc] and used as support for co-immobilizing laccase and acetosyringone molecule to achieve the recyclable solid spherical biocatalyst. It was found that the pesticide intermediate 2,4,5-trichlorophenol of 20 mg/L could be degraded effectively in water using the biocatalyst microspheres with the degradation efficiency of 98.3% at 30 ℃, which was much higher than that of the microspheres containing laccase without acetosyringone. The seed germination results showed that compared with untreated 2,4,5-trichlorophenol solution, the phytotoxicity of 2,4,5-trichlorophenol solution treated by the biocatalyst microspheres was significantly reduced, leading to the significantly higher seed germination rate. The solid biocatalyst maintained the high catalytic degradation activity for 2,4,5-trichlorophenol in the actual industrial water conditions of lake water, coal washing water, as well as coking wastewater. This study provided a green, safe and efficient approach to removing harmful 2,4,5-trichlorophenol from water. • The solid biocatalyst was achieved by co-immobilizing laccase and acetosyringone. • The degradation efficiency of 98.3% for 2,4,5-trichlorophenol was obtained. • The immobilized acetosyringone has a synergistic catalytic function. • The biocatalyst exhibited high catalytic activity in the industrial water environment.