Chemically modified nylons as supports for enzyme immobilization

Abstract

An isocyanide derivative of nylon, polyisonitrile-nylon (1,2), was used as a starting material whereby, through a series of modification reactions, different chemically reactive functional groups could be introduced on the polyamide backbone. The chemistry employed allowed for considerable flexibility in the choice of procedures for covalent fixation of proteins, all starting from the same chemically reactive parent polymer, polyisonitrile-nylon. Thus, polyisonitrilenylon could be used directly for the immobilization of enzymes via fourcomponent condensation reactions. The isocyanide functional groups of the parent polymer could be transformed, by treatment with bromine, into the strongly electrophilic dibromoisocyanide (—N=CBr^b2) groups. The selectivity of the —N=CBr^b2 group toward the various functional groups present in proteins could be regulated by appropriate control of the pH of the coupling reaction. Dibromoisocyanide-nylon was also further modified into other types of chemically reactive nylon derivatives.