ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Preparation of aqueous polyaniline-vesicle suspensions with class III peroxidases. Comparison between horseradish peroxidase isoenzyme C and soybean peroxidase

Katja Junker, Ivan Gitsov, Nick Quade, and Peter Walde

Department of Materials, ETH Zürich, Wolfgang-Pauli-Str. 10, CH-8093, Zürich, Switzerland

E-mail: peter.walde@mat.ethz.ch

Abstract: Aniline was polymerised enzymatically in aqueous solution at pH = 4.3 and 25°C in the presence of submicrometer-sized vesicles formed from sodium bis(2-ethylhexyl)sulphosuccinate (AOT). H₂O₂ served as oxidant and the enzyme used was either horseradish peroxidase isoenzyme C (HRPC) or soybean peroxidase (SBP), both being class III peroxidases. From previous studies with HRPC, it is known that stable vesicle suspensions containing the emeraldine salt form of polyaniline (PANI-ES) can be obtained within 1–2 days with a 90–95 % yield, provided that optimal reaction conditions are applied. Unfortunately, HRPC becomes inactivated during polymerisation. In the present study, a linear dendritic block copolymer was added to HRPC, resulting in higher operational enzyme stability; the stabilising effect, however, was too small to afford a substantial decrease in the required amount of enzyme. Moreover, replacing HRPC with SBP was of no advantage, although SBP is known to be more stable towards inactivation by H₂O₂ than HRPC. By contrast, SBP was found to be much slower in oxidising aniline, and complete inactivation of SBP occurred before all the aniline monomers were oxidised, leading to low yields and the formation of over-oxidised products. The same was observed for HRP isoenzyme A2. Reactions without vesicles indicated that peroxidase inactivation was probably caused by PANI-ES.

Keywords: emeraldine salt – enzyme – peroxidase – polyaniline – template – vesicles

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.2478/s11696-013-0307-y

Chemical Papers 67 (8) 1028–1047 (2013)