Thin film coating of textile materials. Part II: Enzyme immobilization on textile carrier materials

Catalase was covalently immobilized on textile carrier fabrics made of cotton, polyamide and poly(ethylene terephthalate) by different techniques using anchor and cross-linking molecules, or photochemical activation. Depending on the procedure used up to 50 mg catalase could be immobilized on 1g of the carrier material. Even in solutions with high substrate concentrations (e.g., 6.0 g/l H2O2) the immobilized enzyme is reusable more than 20 times and the integral activity after all reuses is still much higher than the activity of the free catalase, which can be used only once. Besides their low costs, natural and synthetic fibers have additional advantages compared to other carrier materials such as their easy handling and their flexible construction.