STUDY ON CO-ASSEMBLY OF INORGANIC/METAL HYBRID NANOPARTICLES AND PAPAIN

Silver nanoparticles formed by oxidation–reduction were deposited on the silica spheres and papain was covalently linked to the spheres, which was intended to combine the advantages of ultra-structure support and covalent immobilization to improve the activity of assembled papain. Effects of silver nanoparticles and diameter of silica spheres on the activity of papain were studied. The results showed that, the activity of papain was 402u/mg when coupled to bare silica spheres, but to silica spheres with deposition of silver nanoparticles it was 536u/mg, an increase by about 30%. The activity recovery of papain also increased by about 60% and maximum reached 30.5%, which was obviously better than that literature value in covalent immobilization with glutaraldehyde.