Immobilization of laccase on mesoporous metal organic frameworks for efficient cross-coupling of ethyl ferulate

Laccases act as green catalysts for oxidative cross-coupling of phenolic antioxidnt compounds, but low stability and non-recyclability limit its application. To address that, metal–organic frameworks Cu-BTC and Cr-MOF were synthesized as supports to immobilize the efficient laccase from Cerrena sp. HYB07. The Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface area of Cu-BTC and Cr-MOF were 1213.2 and 907.1 m²/g, respectively. The two carriers respectively presented pore diameters of 1.2–10 nm and 1.4–12 nm as octahedron, indicating nano-scale mesoporosity. These Cu-BTC and Cr-MOF carriers could adsorb laccase with enzyme loading of 1933.2 and 1564.4 U/g carrier, respectively. The stability and organic solvent tolerance of Cu-BTC-laccase and Cr-MOF-laccase were both obviously improved compared to free laccase. Thermal inactivation kinetics showed that both the two immobilized laccases displayed lower thermal inactivation rate constants. Importantly, the Cu-BTC-laccase and Cr-MOF-laccase both showed much higher activity for cross-coupling of ethyl ferulate than free laccase, which had 2.5-fold higher cross-coupling efficiency than that by free laccase. The ethyl ferulate coupling product was also analyzed by mass spectroscopy and the synthesis pathway of ethyl ferulate dimer was proposed. The cross coupling of ethyl ferulate required the formation of radical intermediates of ethyl ferulate generated by laccase mediated oxidation. This work paved the way for MOFs immobilized laccase for cross coupling of antioxidant phenols.