Chitosan–Collagen Coated Magnetic Nanoparticles for Lipase Immobilization—New Type of “Enzyme Friendly” Polymer Shell Crosslinking with Squaric Acid

This article presents a novel route for crosslinking a polysaccharide and polysaccharide/protein shell coated on magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) surface via condensation reaction with squaric acid (SqA). The syntheses of four new types of collagen-, chitosan-, and chitosan–collagen coated magnetic nanoparticles as supports for enzyme immobilization have been done. Structure and morphology of prepared new materials were characterized by attenuated total reflectance Fourier-transform infrared (ATR-FTIR), XRD, and TEM analysis. Next, the immobilization of lipase from Candida rugosa was performed on the nanoparticles surface via N-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)-N′-ethylcarbodiimide hydrochloride (EDC)/N-hydroxy-succinimide (NHS) mechanism. The best results of lipase activity recovery and specific activities were observed for nanoparticles with polymer shell crosslinked via a novel procedure with squaric acid. The specific activity for lipase immobilized on materials crosslinked with SqA (52 U/mg lipase) was about 2-fold higher than for enzyme immobilized on MNPs with glutaraldehyde addition (26 U/mg lipase). Moreover, a little hyperactivation of lipase immobilized on nanoparticles with SqA was observed (104% and 112%)