Enzyme immobilization: An overview on techniques and support materials

Abstract

The current demands of the world's biotechnological industries are enhancement in enzyme productivity and development of novel techniques for increasing their shelf life. These requirements are inevitable to facilitate large-scale and economic formulation. Enzyme immobilization provides an excellent base for increasing availability of enzyme to the substrate with greater turnover over a considerable period of time. Several natural and synthetic supports have been assessed for their efficiency for enzyme immobilization. Nowadays, immobilized enzymes are preferred over their free counterpart due to their prolonged availability that curtails redundant downstream and purification processes. Future investigations should endeavor at adopting logistic and sensible entrapment techniques along with innovativelymodified supports to improve the state of enzyme immobilization and provide new perspectives to the industrial sector. © The Author(s) 2012.