Nanotechnology and nanomaterials

Biodegradation of Methylene Blue dye and Carbaryl pesticide by immobilized laccase 
Bayramoglu G.1,2, Arica M.Y.1 
1 Biochemical Processing and Biomaterial Research Laboratory, Gazi University, Ankara 06500, Turkey
2Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Gazi University, Ankara 06500, Turkey 
E-mail: g_bayramoglu@hotmail.com

Wastewater from chemical and textile industries containing synthetic organic pollutants have been proved to show mutagenic or carcinogenic effects to the living organisms. Many methods have been developed for elimination of these micro-pollutants from waters such as enzymatic biochemical, biological and chemical methods. Laccases from different white rot fungi strains oxidize many aromatic hydrocarbons such pesticides, drugs, textile dyes and other several aromatic pollutants [1,2]. The application of the free enzyme for environmental technology have some disadvantages such as fast inactivation and non-reusability, thus, free laccases are uneconomic in the biodegradation studies. 
In this work, laccase from Trametes versicolar was immobilized on to functional acrylate based microbeads using cyclic epoxy or cyclic carbonate groups. The amounts of immobilized enzyme on the cyclic carbonate and epoxy groups were 24.6 and 9.7 mg/g, respectively. In the presence of the mediator (i.e., acetosyringone) almost 100% biodegradation was observed for both Methylene Blue dye (MB) and Carbaryl pesticide (CB) by the immobilized laccases, while in the absence of mediator, the biodegradation of MB and CB were found to be 63 and 71%, respectively. The immobilized enzyme was placed in a fluidized bed reactor for biodegradation of MB and CP for 24 h, and the initial activity lost was only 8.0 and 2.0%, respectively. The data show that the immobilized enzyme can successfully be used for completely degradation of organic pollutants in large scale applications.

1.	Bayramoglu G., Salih, B., Arica M.Y. Immobilization of laccase on the fibrous polymer-grafted film and study of textile dye degradation by MALDI–ToF// Chem. Eng. Res. Des. -2017.-128. –P. 107−119.
2.	Bayramoglu G., Arica M.Y. Immobilization of laccase onto poly(GMA) grafted poly(HEMA) films: Enzymatic oxidation of phenolic compounds. // Mater. Sci. Eng.C -2009. -29.-P.1990–1997.