Enzymatically active microspheres for self-propelled colloidal engines

Author

Jungeun Park, CUNY City College of New YorkFollow

Date of Award

2017

Document Type

Thesis

Department

Chemical Engineering

First Advisor

Charles Maldarelli

Keywords

Self-propelled colloids, Enzyme, Elastase, Active colloids, Microspheres

Abstract

Micro- and nano-motors have attracted numerous attentions from various scientific areas due to their potential applications. Most studies on self-propelled colloidal engines have exploited catalytic decomposition of hydrogen peroxide to drive the motor. Since the hydrogen peroxide is caustic, it is not suitable to use in biological applications, encouraging people to develop “greener” fuels. The aim of this research is to study a new transduction mechanism for self-propulsion not tied to hydrogen peroxide, and which can in particular be used with biological molecules as fuels. In this study, we focus on making particles with enzymatic activity which can effectively decompose biomolecules for self-propulsion. We select elastase as a catalyst and coat it on the surface of polystyrene (PS) particles, and use SucAla₃-pNA as a substrate to examine the activity of the elastase-coated particles. We exploit biotin-streptavidin chemistry to couple the elastase on the surface of the PS particles. We confirm that SucAla₃-pNA can be effectively decomposed by elastase and elastase-coated particles using spectrophotometric measurement. The results demonstrate that the elastase-coated PS particles are catalytically active, showing great potential to be used in biologically-friendly system.

Recommended Citation

Park, Jungeun, "Enzymatically active microspheres for self-propelled colloidal engines" (2017). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cc_etds_theses/671