Immobilization engineering - How to design advanced sol-gel systems for biocatalysis?Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: 10.1039/c7gc00896a

An immobilization engineering approach using bioinformatics and experimental design tools was applied to improve the sol-gel enzyme entrapment methodology. This strategy was used for the immobilization of lipase B from Candida antarctica (CaLB), a versatile enzyme widely used even on the industrial scale. The optimized entrapment of CaLB in sol-gel matrices is reported by the response-surface methodology enabling efficient process development. The immobilized CaLBs characterized by functional efficiency and enhanced recovery provided economical and green options for flow chemistry. Various ternary mixtures of sol-gel precursors allowed the creation of tailored entrapment matrices best suited for the enzyme and its targeted substrate. The sol-gel-entrapped forms of CaLB were excellent biocatalysts in the kinetic resolutions of secondary alcohols and secondary amines with aromatic or aliphatic substituents both in batch and continuous-flow biotransformations. An immobilization engineering approach using bioinformatics and experimental design tools was applied to improve the sol-gel enzyme entrapment methodology.