Royal Society of Chemistry, RSC Advances, 72(4), p. 38418-38424, 2014
DOI: 10.1039/c4ra06318j
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The lipase activity of resting cells of Aspergillus flavus was improved by entrapment in various polymeric acrylates (PAAFs). Commercially available ethyl acrylate, butyl acrylate and ethyl methacrylate, and acrylates synthesized from 1,3-dichloropropan-2-ol were used as monomers for the in situ polymerization. The cells were physically entrapped via free-radical-polymerization in aqueous medium or by bulk polymerization. The percentage of resting cells immobilized in the polymers was assessed by analysing the ergosterol content. Bulk polymerization with ethyl methacrylate allowed the greatest incorporation ratio, with 85% of entrapped biocatalyst. Entrapped resting cells were used to prepare ethyl laurate, achieving yields of up to 98%. The specific activity (r) of PAAFs was determined using a batch reactor and a packed-bed reactor (PBR). The highest r was observed for the resting cells entrapped in poly(ethyl methacrylate) using PBR. These results demonstrate that entrapped resting cells of A. flavus can be used to prepare commercial products. ; This work was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for the Secretar´ıa de Estado de Pol´ıtica Cient´ıca y Tecnol´ogica of the Spanish Ministry of Education and Culture (contract grant number: CTQ2009-14699-C02-01). The authors are grateful to the Vicerrectorat de Recerca de l'Universitat de Lleida for the UdL grant of Edinson Yara Var´on. We also thank Tania Yates for the proofreading of the manuscript.