Ultrafast sonochemical synthesis of protein-inorganic nanoflowers

Abstract

Bhagwan S Batule,1 Ki Soo Park,1 Moon Il Kim,2 Hyun Gyu Park1 1Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (BK21+ Program), Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, 2Department of BioNano Technology, Gachon University, Seongnam, Republic of Korea Abstract: We developed a simple but efficient method to synthesize protein-inorganic hybrid nanostructures with a flower-like shape (nanoflowers), which relies on sonication to facilitate the synthesis of the nanoflowers. With this technique, we synthesized nanoflowers containing laccase as a model protein and copper phosphate within 5 minutes at room temperature. The resulting laccase nanoflowers yielded greatly enhanced activity, stability, and reusability, and their usefulness was successfully demonstrated by applying them in the colorimetric detection of epinephrine. The strategy developed could be used to rapidly synthesize nanoflowers for various applications in biosensor and enzyme catalysis and would expand the utilization of nanoflowers in diverse fields of biotechnology. Keywords: copper phosphate, laccase, epinephrine, hybrid nanomaterials