Interfacial Polymerization of Dopamine in a Pickering Emulsion: Synthesis of Cross-Linkable Colloidosomes and Enzyme Immobilization at Oil/Water Interfaces

Colloidosomes are promising carriers for immobilizing enzyme for catalytic purposes in aqueous/organic media. However, they often suffer from one or more problems regarding catalytic performance, stability, and recyclability. Here, we report a novel approach for the synthesis of cross-linkable colloidosomes by the selective polymerization of dopamine at oil/water interfaces in a Pickering emulsion. An efficient enzyme immobilization method was further developed by covalently bonding enzymes to the polydopamine (PDA) layer along with the formation of such colloidosomes with lipase as a model enzyme. In this enzyme system, the PDA layer served as a cross-linking layer and enzyme support for simultaneously enhancing the colloidosomes’ stability and improving surface availability of the enzymes for catalytic reaction. It was found that the specific activity of lipases immobilized on the colloidosome shells was 8 and 1.4 times higher than that of free lipase and encapsulated lipase positioned in the aqueous cores of colloidosomes, respectively. Moreover, the immobilized lipases demonstrated excellent operational stability and recyclability, retaining 86.6% of enzyme activity after 15 cycles. It is therefore reasonable to expect that this novel approach for enzyme immobilization has great potential to serve as an important technique for the construction of biocatalytic systems.