{"title":"Intensification of interfacial enzymatic reactions in oil-water systems using slug flow in adaptive microfluidic channels.","authors":"Ruihao Zhu, Maojun Zhao, Xiaoyi Liu, Chen Chen, Haowen Zhu, Ting Guo, Tao Meng","doi":"10.1007/s10529-025-03631-2","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Lipase is a type of hydrolase that catalyzes reactions at the water-in-oil (O/W) interface and possesses significant applied value across various fields. This study introduces integrated reaction-separation system employing microfluidic slug in a water-in-oil (W/O) droplet flow, specifically designed to enhance lipase-catalyzed interfacial lipid hydrolysis. By incorporating spiral microchannels, the system significantly improves interfacial mass transfer through slug flow-induced mixing and turbulence. Tributyrin hydrolysis within a liquid paraffin/phosphate buffer biphasic system serves as the model reaction to investigate the mechanisms underlying the intensification of interfacial enzymatic catalysis. Under comparable conditions, the microfluidic slug droplet system achieves an enzymatic reaction rate approximately 20 times greater than that observed in conventional beaker-based systems and 1.36 times greater than that in straight microchannels. The effects of droplet size, total flow rate, and channel curvature on conversion efficiency and reaction kinetics are examined, demonstrating that these parameters significantly impact mass transfer behavior. The dynamic interfaces generated within the slug flow architecture increase the specific surface area and facilitate accelerated mass transport, thereby enabling more efficient oil-water biphasic catalysis. This platform offers considerable potential for advancing interfacial biocatalysis and optimizing enzymatic transformations across a broad range of industrial and biotechnological applications.</p>","PeriodicalId":8929,"journal":{"name":"Biotechnology Letters","volume":"47 5","pages":"92"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1000,"publicationDate":"2025-08-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Biotechnology Letters","FirstCategoryId":"5","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-025-03631-2","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"BIOTECHNOLOGY & APPLIED MICROBIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Lipase is a type of hydrolase that catalyzes reactions at the water-in-oil (O/W) interface and possesses significant applied value across various fields. This study introduces integrated reaction-separation system employing microfluidic slug in a water-in-oil (W/O) droplet flow, specifically designed to enhance lipase-catalyzed interfacial lipid hydrolysis. By incorporating spiral microchannels, the system significantly improves interfacial mass transfer through slug flow-induced mixing and turbulence. Tributyrin hydrolysis within a liquid paraffin/phosphate buffer biphasic system serves as the model reaction to investigate the mechanisms underlying the intensification of interfacial enzymatic catalysis. Under comparable conditions, the microfluidic slug droplet system achieves an enzymatic reaction rate approximately 20 times greater than that observed in conventional beaker-based systems and 1.36 times greater than that in straight microchannels. The effects of droplet size, total flow rate, and channel curvature on conversion efficiency and reaction kinetics are examined, demonstrating that these parameters significantly impact mass transfer behavior. The dynamic interfaces generated within the slug flow architecture increase the specific surface area and facilitate accelerated mass transport, thereby enabling more efficient oil-water biphasic catalysis. This platform offers considerable potential for advancing interfacial biocatalysis and optimizing enzymatic transformations across a broad range of industrial and biotechnological applications.
期刊介绍：
Biotechnology Letters is the world’s leading rapid-publication primary journal dedicated to biotechnology as a whole – that is to topics relating to actual or potential applications of biological reactions affected by microbial, plant or animal cells and biocatalysts derived from them.
All relevant aspects of molecular biology, genetics and cell biochemistry, of process and reactor design, of pre- and post-treatment steps, and of manufacturing or service operations are therefore included.
Contributions from industrial and academic laboratories are equally welcome. We also welcome contributions covering biotechnological aspects of regenerative medicine and biomaterials and also cancer biotechnology. Criteria for the acceptance of papers relate to our aim of publishing useful and informative results that will be of value to other workers in related fields.
The emphasis is very much on novelty and immediacy in order to justify rapid publication of authors’ results. It should be noted, however, that we do not normally publish papers (but this is not absolute) that deal with unidentified consortia of microorganisms (e.g. as in activated sludge) as these results may not be easily reproducible in other laboratories.
Papers describing the isolation and identification of microorganisms are not regarded as appropriate but such information can be appended as supporting information to a paper. Papers dealing with simple process development are usually considered to lack sufficient novelty or interest to warrant publication.
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：
京公网安备 11010802042870号
