Comprehensive Understanding of Gold Nanoparticles Enhancing Catalytic Efficiency

Abstract—

Enzymes play significant roles in both life and industry, and increasing enzymatic activity has been a long-term goal of the biochemical science. Recently, it has been reported that nanomaterials can enhance both the specificity and yield of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) though the mechanism of this enhancement remained unclear. By using gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) as model nanomaterials and the cellulase as a typical enzyme, we studied whether and how nanomaterials affect enzymatic activities investigating various aspects of the reaction process. The results showed that the catalytic efficiency of cellulase depends on the concentration of AuNPs. By detailed studying the relation between catalysis and experimental conditions, we found that the enzymatic activity can be increased up to 13.13% upon adding AuNPs in concentration of 0.5 nM into the reaction solution. The optimal pH, temperature, and incubation time for cellulose with 0.5 nM AuNPs were found to be same as those for the cellulose alone. These findings might be useful for enhancing enzymatic activities in the industrial processes.