Biocatalysis And Nanotechnology

Nanobiocatalysis has rapidly developed into a subarea of enzyme biotechnology. It combines the advances in nanotechnology that have generated nanoscale materials of different sizes, shapes, and physicochemical properties, and the excellent characteristics of biocatalysts into an innovative technology. This book provides an overview of the various relations between nanotechnology and biocatalysis. It discusses the fabrication and application of nanomaterials for the immobilization of enzymes used in the sustainable production of goods and chemicals. Nanosupports have several advantages compared with bulk solid materials because of their high surface area, which results in a significantly reduced mass transfer limitation and comparatively high enzyme loading. These characteristics are also of great use for applications in the fields of enzymatic biosensors, biofuel cells, bioelectronics, and photoelectrochemical analyte detection, where conductive nanomaterials improve the rate of electron transfer. The book also presents an overview of nanotoxicology and covers nanostructured enzyme catalysis in organic solvents and its potential application for biodiesel production, probing of enzymatic activity, and identification of enzyme functions of inorganic nanoparticles as enzyme mimics.

Nanomaterials for Biocatalysis explains the fundamental design concepts and emerging applications of nanoscale biocatalysts, such as bioconversions, bioelectronics, biosensors, biocomputing and therapeutic applications. Nano-biocatalysts refers to the incorporation of enzymes into nanomaterials. These enzyme-enhanced nanocarriers have many advantages, including low mass transfer limitation, high enzyme capacity, better stabilization, and the formation of single-enzyme nanoparticles. Smart nanocontainers have been developed for the smart release of their embedded active substances. These smart releases can be obtained by using smart coatings as their outer nanoshells. In addition, these nanocontainers could protect the enzymes from chemical or metabolic alterations on their delivering pathways towards the target. This is an important reference source for materials scientists and chemical engineers who want to know more about how nanomaterials are being used for biocatalysis applications. Explains the major fabrication techniques and applications of nanobiocatalysts Shows how nanobiocatalysts are used in a variety of environmental and biomedical sectors Assesses the major challenges associated with the widespread manufacture of nanobiocatalysts

Nanoscale science and engineering, which deal with size-dependent properties and phenomenon at nanometer scale, are unveiling new mechanisms that scientists must rely on heavily at the present time to achieve efficient and sustainable chemical processing technologies. In Nanoscale Biocatalysis: Methods and Protocols, expert researchers in the field contribute detailed methodologies and procedures that have been developed from recent research in this burgeoning area of nanoscale technology-enabled biocatalysis. The volume opens with concepts in preparing unique and dynamic protein structures for biocatalysis, then moves on to cover methods for preparation of enzyme assembles or complexes that maintain molecular-like Brownian mobility, the development of protein-nanostructure complexes using carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and nanoparticles, as well as methodologies that have great potential for scale-up preparation of nano-structured biocatalysts. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include brief introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and vital tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Authoritative and cutting-edge, Nanoscale Biocatalysis: Methods and Protocols is an ideal guide to the new wave of development in nearly all the major areas of science and engineering brought about by this fascinating and greatly promising area of study.

The book covers the fundamentals of the field of biocatalysis that are not treated in such detail (or even not at all) in existing biocatalysis books or biochemistry textbooks. It of course does not substitute existing biochemistry textbooks but will serve a suitable supplement as it discusses biochemical fundamentals in connection with the respective topics. With focus on the interdisciplinary nature of biocatalysis, the book contains many aspects of fundamental organic chemistry and some of inorganic chemistry as well, which should make it interesting not only for biochemistry but also for chemistry students. An important theme being emphasized in the book is that applied biocatalysis is one of the main prerequisites for a sustainable development. The topics covered ranges from basic enzyme chemistry (biosynthesis, structure, properties, interaction forces, kinetics) to a detailed description of catalytic mechanisms. It covers the fundamentals of the different enzyme classes together with their applications in native and in immobilized state or in the form of whole cells in aqueous as well as non-conventional media. Topics such as catalytic antibodies, nucleic acid catalysts, non-ribosomal peptide synthesis, evolutionary methods, and the design of cells are also included.

Biocatalytic Technology & Nanotechnology

“Multi-scale Quantum Models for Biocatalysis” explores various molecular modelling techniques and their applications in providing an understanding of the detailed mechanisms at play during biocatalysis in enzyme and ribozyme systems. These areas are reviewed by an international team of experts in theoretical, computational chemistry, and biophysics. This book presents detailed reviews concerning the development of various techniques, including ab initio molecular dynamics, density functional theory, combined QM/MM methods, solvation models, force field methods, and free-energy estimation techniques, as well as successful applications of multi-scale methods in the biocatalysis systems including several protein enzymes and ribozymes. This book is an excellent source of information for research professionals involved in computational chemistry and physics, material science, nanotechnology, rational drug design and molecular biology and for students exposed to these research areas.

This book provides up-to-date reviews of nanomaterials synthesis, characterization, and applications in biomolecular catalysis. It contains useful references for researchers in this field and will be a practical guide for future researchers.

This book covers the application, both actual and potential, of biological catalysts (including whole cells or isolated components thereof, natural and modified enzymes and catalytic antibodies) for the synthesis, interconversion or degradation of chemical species.