Thumbnail Image
Publication

Elucidating structure-function relationships in active mesoporous cobalt phosphate materials to extend the lifetime of enzymes

Hughes, Davin V.
; 
von Brandt, Richard
; 
Trewyn, Brian
Citations
Altmetric:
Advisor
Editor
Date
Date Issued
2026-04
Date Submitted
Keywords
Collections
2026 Spring Undergraduate Research Symposium
Show all metadata
Files
Thumbnail Image
Hughes_Davin_UGRS2026.pdf
Adobe PDF, 1.05 MB
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
URI
https://hdl.handle.net/11124/182006
 https://doi.org/10.25676/11124/182006
Embargo Expires
Abstract
Chemoenzymatic systems have the potential to reduce costs and resources, advantages not frequently observed in current individual, stepwise reactions. However, critical knowledge gaps remain to be investigated: can active supports serve as scaffolding to protect enzymes in chemoenzymatic systems, can the scaffolding be fabricated into a 3D porous architecture, and what influence does surface modification of active scaffolding have on reactivity? The versatility of mesoporous nanomaterials like mesoporous cobalt phosphate nanoparticles (mCoPi) makes these types of particles excellent candidates to investigate these questions by designing and synthesizing the appropriate architecture and reactivity of the catalytically active scaffolding. Synthetic methods have advanced to a stage that the interior pore surface, pore morphology, and the exterior surface can be independently modified with organic and inorganic moieties, giving two unique locations for supporting unique catalytic centers to a single mCoPi particle. Our research has identified another particle that possesses an increased surface area compared to the mCoPi particle; it is still catalytically active and whose surface can be more easily modified using moieties to protect enzymes loaded within the pores. Mesoporous silica nanoparticles with cobalt (MSN-Co) are the particles we have pivoted the experiment to. This particle, like mCoPi, can synthesize alpha-ketoglutaric acid from glutamic acid while quenching the hydrogen peroxide (which destroys the desired product) in the process; alpha-ketoglutaric acid is a commonly used supplement that is currently a $1 billion industry. Together, the benefits of MSN-Co and its ease of scale-up position MSN-Co as a more promising scaffold for extending the lifetimes of enzymes and for use in chemoenzymatic tandem systems.
Associated Publications
Rights
Copyright of the original work is retained by the author.
Embedded videos