Mechanochemistry-guided reticular assembly for stabilizing enzymes with covalent organic frameworks
Rui Gao, Ningyi Zhong, Linjing Tong, Xiaoxue Kou, Wei Huang, Hongling Yang, Siming Huang, Jiayi Wu, Guosheng Chen, Gangfeng Ouyang
Abstract
Structural stabilization of enzymes by porous frameworks is an emerging strategy in biotechnology that may accelerate large-scale industrial application of biocatalysts. Herein, we stabilize an enzyme by wrapping it with covalent organic frameworks in situ using a mild mechanochemistry-guided assembly. This mechanochemical strategy circumvents the harsh conditions often necessary for covalent organic frameworks’ crystallization, and hence avoids enzyme denaturation during the de novo encapsulation. The covalent-linked topology and tailorable large pore channels of the covalent organic framework host not only stabilize enzymes, but also outperform the well-explored enzyme-zeolite imidazole framework counterparts in terms of catalytic efficiency, functional diversity, and structural stability. This work offers a greener and convenient mechanochemistry-guided assembly strategy, enabling template-free enzyme encapsulation across multiple enzyme and covalent organic framework pore structures.