Immobilized enzyme

An immobilized enzyme is an enzyme attached to an inert, insoluble material—such as calcium alginate (produced by reacting a mixture of sodium alginate solution and enzyme solution with calcium chloride). This can provide increased resistance to changes in conditions such as pH or temperature. It also lets enzymes be held in place throughout the reaction, following which they are easily separated from the products and may be used again - a far more efficient process and so is widely used in industry for enzyme catalysed reactions. An alternative to enzyme immobilization is whole cell immobilization.

Immobilized enzymes are very important for commercial uses as they possess many benefits to the expenses and processes of the reaction of which include:

In the past, biological washing powders and detergents contained many proteases and lipases that broke down dirt. However, when the cleaning products contacted human skin, they created allergic reactions. This is why immobilization of enzymes are important, not just economically.

There are various ways by which one can immobilize an enzyme:

Another widely used application of the immobilization approach together with enzymes has been the enzymatic reactions on immobilized substrates. This approach facilitates the analysis of enzyme activities and mimics the performance of enzymes on e.g. cell walls.

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Wikipedia